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ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP − Reference →  Built-In Types, Data Objects, Functions, and Constructors →  Predefined Data Types →  Built-In ABAP Types 

Built-In Date Types, Time Types, and Time Stamp Types

The data objects of the date types, time types, and time stamp types are used to handle calendar dates, times, and time stamps.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Attributes

Type Length Default Length Name
d 8 characters   Date field
t 6 characters   Time field
utclong 8 byte   Time stamp field

Value Ranges and Initial Values

Type Value Range Initial Value
d Any eight alphanumeric characters, but only those digits are valid that are valid as dates in accordancewith the calendar rules in the format "yyyymmdd": "yyyy"(year): 0001 to 9999, "mm" (month): 01 to 12, "dd" (day): 01 to 31 "00000000"
t Any six alphanumeric characters, but only those digits are valid that are valid as times in accordancein the format 24-hour clock format "hhmmss". "hh"(hours): 00 to 23, "mm" (minutes): 00 to 59, "ss" (seconds): 00 to 59. "000000"
utclong Internal 8-byte integer representation of a UTC time stamp exact to 100 nanoseconds, in ISO-8601notation between "0001-01-01T00:00:00.0000000" and "9999-12-31T23:59:59.9999999". There are 3,155,380,704,000,000,000 real values and one special initial value. 0


Notes

  • Date types and time types d and t

  • The date types and time types are used to handle values for calendar dates and times. Information about how they are used and their special handling can be found under Date Fields and Time Fields.

  • From a technical perspective, the data types d and t are flat character-like types. The content of their data objects is saved in accordance with the current system code page.

  • As character-like data types, data objects of the data types d and t can be used like text fields of the type c. This applies in particular also to structures with components of the types d and t.

  • The generic type clike also covers the types d and t.

  • Data objects of the types d and t display character-like behavior in character-like operand positions and numeric behavior in numeric operand positions.

  • The data types d and t are the built-in ABAP types that correspond to the special types DATS, DATN, and TIMS, TIMN in ABAP Dictionary.

  • The valid values of the data types d and t are a subset of their value range. ABAP statements that work with data objects of these types are only guaranteed to function correctly for operands with valid values.

  • Time stamp type utclong

  • The time stamp type utclong represented internally by integer numbers is a type for real time stamp fields and replaces the time stamps represented by packed numbers.

  • The data type utclong is the built-in ABAP type that corresponds to the special type UTCLONG in ABAP Dictionary.

  • The system class CL_ABAP_UTCLONG for time stamps in time stamp fields contains the minimum and maximum values of the type utclong as attributes.

  • Invalid values in time stamps (meaning integers outside of the string of valid values) can be produced by casting.

  • There is not a time stamp for the missing days due to the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The time stamp "1582-10-04T23:59:59.9999999" is followed by the time stamp "1582-10-15T00:00:00.0000000".


Example

Declares date fields and time fields of the built-in ABAP types d and t and examples for how to use them. These declarations are made both using the statement DATA and using the declaration operator DATA.

DATA: tomorrow  TYPE d, 
      next_hour TYPE t. 

DATA(today) = sy-datlo. 
DATA(now)   = sy-timlo. 

tomorrow  = today + 1. 
next_hour = ( now + 3600 ) / 3600 * 3600.

Example

Creates a time stamp of the type utclong using the built-in function utclong_current and converts it into date fields and time fields.

DATA(ts) = utclong_current( ). 

CONVERT UTCLONG ts 
        INTO DATE DATA(dat) TIME DATA(tim) 
        TIME ZONE sy-zonlo. 

cl_demo_output=>display( 
  |{ ts }\n| && 
  |{ dat }\n| && 
  |{ tim }|  ).