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Technical Attributes of Structures

A structure describes a structure type with the following technical attributes:

• Component name

The name of a component can have a maximum of 30 characters, can contain only letters, numbers, and underscores, and must start with a letter or a namespace prefix. If a structure is inserted in a database table, however, the component names cannot have more than 16 characters.

• Component type

• For elementary components, the technical attributes ( predefined data type, length, and any decimal places) are defined with reference to a data element for an elementary type in ABAP Dictionary or directly in the structure component.

• For reference-like components, the technical attributes are defined by reference to a data element that describes a reference type or directly in the structure component. When specified directly, data references can be defined by reference to any data type in ABAP Dictionary or to the generic type DATA. Object references can be defined by reference to classes or interfaces in the Class Library or to the generic type OBJECT,

• Substructures are defined by reference to structures, database tables, or views in ABAP Dictionary. A substructure can be defined as a static box. In ABAP data objects declared with reference to the structure in ABAP Dictionary, a static box supports initial value sharing.

• Tabular components are defined by reference to a table type in ABAP Dictionary.

• Enhancement category

The enhancement category of a structure specifies how a structure can be enhanced using customizing includes or append structures and dictates how ABAP programs that work with data objects of this structure type are checked,

• Activation type

An activation type can be defined for a structure, like for database tables, but has no specific use here.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Notes

• In ABAP, the component names of structures are not strictly speaking a technical type attribute. They are listed here however to simplify the picture.

• The above rules for component names are checked strictly by ABAP Dictionary for table fields of database tables only and not for structures. Component names of structures can contain special characters (such as :) that prevent the component from being addressed in an ABAP program. For this reason, only those component names should be used that comply with the above rules.

• A substructure cannot be defined using a reference to a CDS entity of a CDS view but it can be defined using a reference to a CDS database view.

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Enhancement Category of Structures