ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP Glossary
table index
An index of an internal table, managed by the ABAP runtime environment. A primary table index is used for index tables and secondary table indexes are used for the management of sorted secondary table keys. The row numbers of every table index start at 1 and run consecutively and with no gaps, up to the current number of rows in the table. If necessary, the physical index is changed to a logical index, which increases runtime. The logical index is created in precisely the moment in which a row is inserted before another row, the order of the table rows is changed, or if any row except for the bottom row is deleted.