SAP ABAP Determining The Attributes Of Data Objects At Runtime

SAP ABAP Determining The Attributes Of Data Objects At Runtime

Attributes of SAP ABAP Data Objects can be determined at Runtime. The following attributes can be determined at runtime.

FIELD LENGTH
DATA TYPE
OUTPUT LENGTH
DECIMAL PLACES
CONVERSION ROUTINE
DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO FIELDS
HELP TEXT ID

The statement used for determining the attributes of a field is DESCRIBE. We have seen earlier how we can use DESCRIBE to find attributes of a internal Table. See the post on Internal Table Basics.

Please find below the Syntax used to determine the attributes of SAP ABAP Data Objects at runtime.

DESCRIBE FIELD <field> [LENGTH <l>] [TYPE <t> [COMPONENTS <n>]]
                   [OUTPUT-LENGTH <o>] [DECIMALS <d>]
                   [EDIT MASK <m>] [HELP-ID <h>].

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Finding the Data Type at runtime.

Syntax

DESCRIBE FIELD <field> TYPE <t>.

Once the above statement is executed the type of the field <field> is obtained in the variable <t>.

Example.

REPORT ZEX_ATTRIBUTES .


Data: d_intiger    type i,
      d_float      type f,
      d_packed     type p,
      d_character  type c,
      d_date       type d,
      d_numc       type n,
      d_time       type t,
      d_hexa       type x,
      d_type       type c.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_intiger type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_intiger', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_float type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_float', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_packed type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_packed', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_character type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_character', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_date type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_date', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_numc type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_numc', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_time type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_time', d_type.

      DESCRIBE FIELD d_hexa type d_type.
      Write:/ 'd_hexa', d_type.

The output of the above program is as follows.

Finding Attributes of a field      
                                   
d_intiger I                        
d_float F                          
d_packed P                         
d_character C                      
d_date D                           
d_numc N                           
d_time T                           
d_hexa X                                                              

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Finding the Length at Runtime.

Syntax

DESCRIBE FIELD <field> LENGTH <l>.

The length of the filed <field> is obtained in <l>.

Example.

REPORT ZEX_ATTRIBUTES1 .

Data: d_char(8) type c,
          d_len     type i.

      move 'TEXT' to d_char.
      DESCRIBE FIELD d_char LENGTH d_len.
      Write:/ d_char, 'Length', d_len.

The output of the above program is as follows.

Finding the attributes length     
                                  
TEXT     Length          8        

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Finding the Conversion Routine at Runtime.

Syntax

DESCRIBE FIELD <f> EDIT MASK <m>.

We have seen earlier how a CONVERSION ROUTINE works in SAP.

We will now see an example of finding out the conversion routine at runtime. As we have seen earlier the Domain AUART has a conversion routine AUART. We will now determine this by using the example given below.

REPORT ZEX_ATTRIBUTES_CONVERSIONR .

data: d_ord like vbak-auart,
          d_mask(10).

DESCRIBE FIELD d_ord EDIT MASK d_mask.
Write:/ d_mask.

The output of this program is as follows.

Finding the conversion Routine      
                                    
==AUART                             

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