Type pools VS Top Include.

Former Member — Sun, 23 May 2010 13:52:51 GMT

Hi all,

Is there any difference between a top include and Type pools.

As both are used for data declaration purpose, i would like to know any differences between these two.

Please kindly clarify me on this.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.

Clemenss — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:38:17 GMT

nathan,

i a way, they are similar.

You can include a type-pool in the type groups section of a (global) class, you can't do this with an include.

I think TYPE-POOLS have been invented to make some programming easier, but they are quite obsolete today.

Is this an academic question or can you add some practical background?

Regards,

Clemens

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.

Former Member — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:52:45 GMT

It might come as a surprise to some, but this is all information that can be easily derived from the online SAP documentation. Here we go...

A type group (which can be defined via the [TYPE-POOL|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPTYPE-POOL.htm] statement) is more or less a historical artifact, which allowed you since release 3.0 to define any type globally in the data dictionary (and at that time the data dictionary was limited and didn't allow for example types for internal tables). For further reading I recommend the online help on [data types in the ABAP dictionary|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp2/helpdata/en/fc/eb3138358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/frameset.htm].

Now, a type group is not like any include, because it only allows certain statements (see [TYPE-POOL|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPTYPE-POOL.htm] in the online ABAP help) and is designed as a global object for re-use. E.g. in TOP includes you would also define your global data (e.g. if you have a module pool for a dialog program), whereas in type groups you cannot do that. And obviously a TOP include is not necessarily a global object that should be shared across programs (though of course you can do that).

As Clemens already pointed out, type groups are nowadays considered obsolete, because you have different alternatives (see comments in [data types in the ABAP dictionary|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp2/helpdata/en/fc/eb3138358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/frameset.htm]). Note also that with 7.0 EhP2 the ABAP compiler automatically loads type groups on demand (which also shows you their global nature) and thus making the statement [TYPE-POOLS|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPTYPE-POOLS.htm] obsolete (see the comments there).

Cheers, harald

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.

Former Member — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:42:55 GMT

Hi Clemens & Harald,

Thanks a lot for your explanation....

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Type pools VS Top Include.

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.

Re: Type pools VS Top Include.