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ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Reference →  Processing Internal Data →  Date and Time Processing →  Character-Like Date Fields and Time Fields 

Accessing Character-Like Date Fields and Time Fields

Only a few operand positions are affected by the fact that character-like date fields and time fields contain a local date in the format "yyyymmdd" or a local time in the format "hhmmss":

  • When using character-like date fields and time fields as source fields or target fields of a lossless assignment.

In all other operand positions, the handling of character-like date fields and time fields is specified in the conversion rules and comparison rules for these data types.

  • The conversion rules are designed so that data objects of the types d and t display character-like behavior in character-like operand positions and numeric behavior in numeric operand positions. In the latter case, the content of a character-like date field is converted to the number of days since 01.01.0001 and the content of a character-like time field is converted to the number of seconds since midnight.
  • The comparison rules are designed so that a later date or later time is greater than an earlier date or earlier time.

Direct assignments or comparisons between the data types d and t are meaningless and therefore forbidden. The following sections show examples of how to access character-like date fields and time fields effectively.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54


Note

The function modules of the function group SCAL provide some additional information about character-like dates, for example the day of the week or the calendar week for a given date.

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Character-Like Access to Character-Like Date Fields and Time Fields

Accessing Character-Like Date Fields and Time Fields Numerically

Evaluating Character-Like Date Fields and Time Fields - Example