Predefined Types in the ABAP Dictionary

The following table lists the predefined types in the ABAP Dictionary. These types cannot be used directly in ABAP programs, and are therefore known as external data types. Instead, they are used in the ABAP Dictionary for the definition of data types to which ABAP programs can refer. The predefined data types of the ABAP Dictionary must also be taken into account in Open SQL statements and when working with screens: Open SQL statements work with database tables defined in the ABAP Dictionary whose colums have external data types. Screen fields are also declared in the Screen Painter with reference to external data types.

Type	Permitted Places m	Meaning	ABAP Type
ACCP	6	Accounting period	n(6)
CHAR	1-255	Character string	c(m)
CLNT	3	Client	c(3)
CUKY	5	Currency key	c(5)
CURR	1-31	Currency field	p((m+1)/2)
DATS	8	Date	d
DEC	1-31	Calculation/amount field	p((m+1)/2)
FLTP	16	Floating point number	f(8)
INT1	3	1 byte integer	b
INT2	5	2 byte integer	s
INT4	10	4 byte integer	i
LANG	1	Language	c(1)
LCHR	256-...	Long character string	c(m)
LRAW	256-...	Long byte string	x(m)
NUMC	1-255	numerischer Text	n(m)
PREC	2	Accuracy of a quantity field	s
QUAN	1-31	Quantity field	p((m+1)/2)
RAW	1-255	Byte sequence	x(m)
RAWSTRING	256-...	Byte sequence	xstring
SSTRING	1-255	Character string	string
STRING	256-...	Character string	string
TIMS	6	Time	t
UNIT	2-3	Unit key	c(m)

For types LCHR and LRAW, the maximum number of places in a transparent database table is the value of the preceding INT2 field.

The types RAWSTRING and STRING have a variable length. A maximum length for these types can be specified, but has no upper limit.

The type SSTRING is available as of release 6.10 and it has a variable length. Its maximum length must be specified and is limited to 255. The advantage of this type compared with CHAR, is that it is assigned to the ABAP type string.

The table below shows the data types of the ABAP Dictionary that are based on the predefined types in the above table, and that can be addressed in an ABAP program. The elementary components of these data types are converted to predefined ABAP data types according to the final column in the above table, whereby the number of places m of each type is converted to lengths.

Data types in the ABAP Dictionary	Data types in ABAP
Data element	Elementary data type, Reference type
Structure, Database table, View	Structured data type
Table type	Table type

Note

As of release 6.20, a component of structures or database tables that has the type LANG can be identified as a text language. The text language is used for the conversion of character-type components of the structure when importing data from data clusters and for RFC between MDMP systems and Unicode systems.