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Declaration Positions

Declaration positions are writing-only positions in which a declaration expression can be specified for an inline declaration. There are no declaration positions within expressions.

The following declaration positions are possible:

• Positions for the inline declaration of variables with DATA(var). These are the following writer positions, where the operand type can be determined in full and where the content of the operand is completely overwritten but not evaluated.

• Left side of an assignment with the assignment operator =

lhs = ...

• Actual parameters for output parameters and return values of methods for standalone method calls:
  
  meth( IMPORTING p1 = a1 p2 = a2...
      RECEIVING r  =  a )
  
  If a method call is on the right side of an assignment or is part of an expression, these actual parameters are not declaration positions.

• Target fields when catching an exception:
  
  CATCH EXCEPTION INTO oref

CLEANUP INTO oref

• Target fields in statements for string processing and byte string processing:
  
  FIND ... MATCH COUNT mcnt
         MATCH OFFSET moff
         MATCH LENGTH mlen
         RESULTS result_tab|result_wa
         SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ...

REPLACE  ... REPLACEMENT COUNT rcnt
            REPLACEMENT OFFSET moff
            REPLACEMENT LENGTH mlen
            RESULTS result_tab|result_wa

CONCATENATE ... INTO result

SPLIT ... INTO result1 result2 ...
          INTO TABLE result_tab

CONVERT TEXT ... INTO SORTABLE CODE hex

GET BIT ... INTO val.

• Target fields in statements for time stamps:
  
  CONVERT UTCLONG ... INTO DATE dat TIME tim DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME dst
  
  CONVERT ... INTO UTCLONG time_stamp

GET TIME STAMP time_stamp

CONVERT TIME STAMP ... INTO DATE dat TIME tim DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME dst

CONVERT ... INTO TIME STAMP time_stamp

• Target fields in statements for internal tables:
  
  READ TABLE ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj

LOOP AT ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj

INSERT ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj
  
  COLLECT    ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj
  
  APPEND     ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj

MODIFY ... [REFERENCE] INTO dobj

FIND ... IN TABLE MATCH COUNT mcnt
         IN TABLE MATCH LINE mlin
         IN TABLE MATCH OFFSET moff
         IN TABLE MATCH LENGTH mlen
         IN TABLE RESULTS result_tab|result_wa
         IN TABLE SUBMATCHES s1 s2 ...

REPLACE ... IN TABLE REPLACEMENT COUNT rcnt
            IN TABLE REPLACEMENT LINE rlin
            IN TABLE REPLACEMENT OFFSET moff
            IN TABLE REPLACEMENT LENGTH mlen
            IN TABLE RESULTS result_tab|result_wa

• Target fields of the ABAP SQL statement SELECT:
  
  SELECT ... INTO (elem1, elem2, ... )

SELECT ... INTO wa

SELECT ... INTO TABLE itab

• Target fields of the statement DESCRIBE:
  
  DESCRIBE FIELD ... TYPE typ [COMPONENTS com] LENGTH ilen DECIMALS dec
                     OUTPUT-LENGTH olen HELP-ID hlp EDIT MASK mask
  
  DESCRIBE TABLE ... KIND knd LINES lin OCCURS n

DESCRIBE DISTANCE ... INTO dst

• Target fields of various GET statements:
  
  GET PARAMETER ... FIELD dobj

GET PF-STATUS status

GET REFERENCE INTO dref

GET RUN TIME FIELD rtime

GET TIME FIELD tim
  
  

• Work area in statement for dynpros:
  
  LOOP AT SCREEN ... INTO wa

• Target field for message output:
  
  MESSAGE ... INTO text

• Target fields in file interface statements:
  
  READ DATASET ... LENGTH alen

GET DATASET ... POSITION pos ATTRIBUTES attr
  

• Target field for a serialization:
  
  CALL TRANSFORMATION ... RESULT XML rxml

• All writing positions used when generating programs:
  
  GENERATE GENERATE SUBROUTINE POOL ... NAME prog error_handling

• Positions for the inline declaration of field symbols with FIELD-SYMBOL(<fs>). These are all places where a memory area can be assigned to a field symbol.

• Field symbol in the statement ASSIGN:
  
  ASSIGN... TO <fs>

• Field symbols in statements for internal tables:
  
  READ TABLE ... ASSIGNING <fs>

LOOP AT ... ASSIGNING <fs>

INSERT ... ASSIGNING <fs>

COLLECT    ... ASSIGNING <fs>

APPEND     ... ASSIGNING <fs>

MODIFY ... ASSIGNING <fs>

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Note

Unlike in standalone method calls, in a functional method call inline declarations cannot be specified as actual parameters for output parameters.

Example

Declaration expression DATA for declaring an internal table itab after the addition INTO TABLE of a SELECT statement.

SELECT * 
       FROM scarr 
       INTO TABLE @DATA(itab).