ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP Programming Guidelines → Structure and Style → Naming
Names of Structure Components
Other versions:
7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54
Background
When ABAP programs are executed, the names of data objects usually only have the task of identifying the data objects uniquely. The ABAP statements operate directly with the objects in question without attaching any special meaning to their names. The names of structure components are an exception here. They are evaluated in the following cases:
- When structure components are assigned using
- the statement
MOVE-CORRESPONDING
- the component operator
CORRESPONDING
- the system class CL_ABAP_CORRESPONDING
- In ABAP SQL, in the addition
CORRESPONDING of the statement
SELECT
In these language constructs, the names of the components of the structures in question are compared and the operation is executed using the identically named components (if not overridden by a mapping rule).
Rule
Give structure components with the same meaning the same names
Give the components of structures that have the same meaning within a data model the same names
Details
This rule mainly applies to data models defined in ABAP Dictionary (including ABAP CDS). If one of the
CORRESPONDING constructs above is used in an ABAP program to access structures
or structured internal tables (and the structured types of these structures or tables are defined like
database tables or CDS entities using types from the data model in ABAP Dictionary), it is essential that components from different structures but with the same semantics have the same name.
Bad Example
The database tables DOKIL DOKHL, and DOKTL are in the same package and the same application. The column whose type is determined by the data element DOKVERS has the same name (DOKVERSION) in DOKHL and DOKTL, but the name in DOKIL is VERSION.
Good Example
Columns of the familiar structures used in the flight data model in training and documentation that have the same semantics usually also have the same names.