ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP - Reference → Processing Internal Data → Character String and Byte String Processing

Statements for Character String and Byte String Processing

The following table shows the key words for character string and byte string processing and the processes supported by these statements.

Keyword	Character string processing	Byte string processing
`CONCATENATE`	X	X
`FIND`	X	X
`REPLACE`	X	X
`SHIFT`	X	X
`SPLIT`	X	X
`CONDENSE`	X	-
`CONVERT TEXT`	X	-
`OVERLAY`	X	-
`TRANSLATE`	X	-
`WRITE TO`	X	-

`SET BIT`	-	X
`GET BIT`	-	X

There is a strict split between character string processing and byte string processing. Each of the key words in the table that supports both character string and byte string processing has the optional addition

... IN {CHARACTER|BYTE} MODE ...

This addition defines which processing is used. If this addition is not specified, character string processing is used in these statements.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Notes

As well as the statements shown here, a range of obsolete statements for character and byte string processing exists.

The following additional rules apply in obsolete non-Unicode programs:

In the statements for character string processing, flat structures and byte strings are handled like character strings (implicit casting is used).

All statements that can perform explicit byte string processing produce the correct result when byte strings are accessed in a non-Unicode system, even if IN BYTE MODE is not specified, as long as the character-like interpretation of the binary content is not significant.

The statements GET BIT and SET BIT are also possible for character strings.

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