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ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP - Reference →  Processing Internal Data →  Assignments →  Assignment and Conversion Rules →  Conversion Rules for Structures 

Unicode Fragment View

The Unicode fragment view splits a structure into fragments. A fragment is a grouping of structure components of the same or similar data types. In nested structures, the elementary components on the lowest nesting depth are taken into account when forming fragments in nested structures. The following parts of a structure are each grouped to form fragments:

  • Consecutive flat character-like components of the types c, n, d, and t, between which there are no alignment gaps, form character-like fragments.
  • Consecutive flat byte-like components of the type x, between which there are no alignment gaps, form byte-like fragments.
  • Consecutive numeric similarly typed components of type (b, s), i, decfloat16, decfloat34, or f, between which there are no alignment gaps, each form a separate fragment.
  • Each individual numeric type p component forms a separate fragment. For this type of fragment it is the length that is important, not the number of decimal places.
  • In deep structures, each deep component (reference) forms a separate fragment.
  • Each alignment gap is regarded as a fragment.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54


Notes

  • In nested structures, alignment gaps can arise before and after aligned substructures.

  • When structure components are passed using INCLUDE, an additional alignment gap can appear in front of the passed components.

  • The Unicode fragment view of structures with components of type p can match, even when the number of decimal places in the components concerned is different.


Example

DATA: 
  BEGIN OF struc, 
    a TYPE c LENGTH 3, 
    b TYPE n LENGTH 4, 
    c TYPE d, 
    d TYPE t, 
    e TYPE decfloat16, 
    f TYPE x LENGTH 2, 
    g TYPE x LENGTH 4, 
    h TYPE i, 
    i TYPE i, 
    j TYPE i, 
    k TYPE i, 
  END OF struc.

The structure struc contains the following Unicode fragments in a Unicode system in which character-like fields are represented by 2 bytes per character. Alignment gaps are marked with an A.

Fragment Components Bytes
1 a, b, c, d 6+8+16+12
2 A 6
3 e 8
4 f, g 2+4
5 A 2
6 h, i, j, k 4+4+4+4