ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Release-Specific Changes →  Changes in Release 7.0 and its EhPs →  Changes for Release 7.0 

Internal Tables in Release 7.0

In Release 7.0, additional functions in internal tables have been introduced as follows:

1. Addition CASTING after ASSIGNING

2. Sort key specified dynamically in SORT

3. Optimization when specifying a WHERE condition

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Modification 1

Addition CASTING After ASSIGNING

In all statements for processing internal tables in which the addition ASSIGNING <fs> can be specified for the output behavior, it is now also possible to use the addition CASTING (familiar from the statement ASSIGN) to cast a table row to the type of the field symbol.

Modification 2

Sort Key Specified Dynamically in SORT

In the statement SORT itab, the sort key, sort direction, and the text sorting can be specified in a new variant of the addition BY in a special internal table otab of type ABAP_SORTORDER_TAB.

Modification 3

Optimization when Specifying a WHERE Condition

Until now, the optimized table reads performed when specifying an initial segment of the table key (using equality queries joined using AND) in cases where a WHERE condition was specified in the statements LOOP, DELETE, and MODIFY were only optimized for sorted tables. From Release 7.0, this is done for hashed tables too. In hashed tables, however, the entire table key must be specified for the optimization to take place.