Skip to content

ABAP Keyword Documentation →  ABAP − Reference →  ABAP Syntax →  ABAP Statements →  Operands →  Names for Individual Operands 

Dereferencing Operator

The dereferencing operator can be used to access the content of a data object pointed to by a data reference:

dref->*

The dereferencing operator ->* can be specified after a data reference variable dref.

  • If the static type of the data reference variable is not generic, the expression dref->* can be specified at any operand position.
  • For data reference variables with the generic static type data, only the statement ASSIGN dref ->* TO <fs> can be used to assign the data object (to which the data reference points) to a field symbol.

If the data reference variable contains the null reference, the non-handleable exception DATREF_NOT_ASSIGNEDis raised when the dereferencing operator is used. Dereferencing in the statement ASSIGN is an exception to this.

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54


Note

The dereferencing operator uses the object component selector.


Example

Uses the dereferencing operator in a general operand position and in the statement ASSIGN. Only in ASSIGN can dref be initial without a non-handleable exception being raised.

DATA(dref) = NEW i( 111 ). 
cl_demo_output=>write( |dref->* { dref->* }| ). 

CLEAR dref. 
ASSIGN dref->* TO FIELD-SYMBOL(<fs>). 
cl_demo_output=>write( |sy-subrc { sy-subrc }| ). 

cl_demo_output=>display( ).