ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP − Reference → Processing Internal Data → Attributes of Data Objects
DESCRIBE
Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54
Syntax Forms
Field Properties
1. DESCRIBE FIELD ...
Properties of an Internal Table
2. DESCRIBE TABLE ...
Distance Between Two Fields
3. DESCRIBE DISTANCE ...
Effect
The variants of the statement DESCRIBE listed above can be used to specify some of the attributes displayed by data objects at runtime.
Notes
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The statement
DESCRIBEis used to determine the attributes of data objects of elementary data types. WhenDESCRIBEis used for structures or data objects of deep data types like strings, internal tables, or reference variables, only elementary attributes can be identified. Additional information, for example the static or dynamic type of a reference, cannot be determined byDESCRIBE. For this kind of information, the type description classes of runtime type services (RTTS) should be used. These enable all data object attributes of all data types to be determined. Since the functions of the RTTS type description classes comprise the complete functions of theDESCRIBEstatement, the system classes can be used instead of the statement. -
The variant
DESCRIBE LISTspecifies the attributes of lists in the list buffer.