What does it do? These additions of the statement FIELD-SYMBOLS produce an obsolete typing of the field symbol and are forbidden in classes.
ABAP Addition
What does it do? If no explicit type is specified after FIELD-SYMBOLS, the field symbol is typed implicitly with the completely generic type any. Furthermore, the field symbol is assigned the predefined constant space when the context is loaded. This means that the field symbol is not initial directly after it has been declared, and a check using IS ASSIGNED is true.
ABAP Addition
What does it do? If the addition STRUCTURE, which is forbidden within classes, is specified for a field symbol instead of typing and struc is a local program structure (a data object, not a data type) or a flat structure from the ABAP Dictionary, this structure is cast for the field symbol <(><)>. dobj must be used to specify a data object that is assigned to the field symbol as an initial object. The field symbol inherits the technical properties of structure struc, as with complete typing. In the case of a structured data object dobj, this data object must be at least as long as the formal parameter:
In the case of a structured data object, its fragment view must match the fragment view of the corresponding initial part of struc.
An elementary data object must be character-like and flat and the corresponding initial part of struc can contain only components of this type. The same applies to assignments of data objects to field symbols typed using STRUCTURE when using the statement ASSIGN.
Latest notes: Field symbols declared using the addition STRUCTURE are a mixture of typed field symbols and a tool for casting to structured data types. The additions TYPE or LIKE of the statement FIELD-SYMBOLS should be used to type field symbols, while the addition CASTING of the statement ASSIGN is used for casting. ABAP_HINT_END
Example ABAP Coding
The first example shows the obsolete use of the addition STRUCTURE . ABEXA 00262 The second example shows the replacement of STRUCTURE with the additions TYPE and CASTING. ABEXA 00263 ABAP_EXAMPLE_END
ABAP_EXAMPLE_ABEXA Field Symbols, Cast Structures ABAP_EXAMPLE_END
