ABAP OO/RTTI: dynamic method invocation and type determination

Former Member — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:37:07 GMT

Hi,

I tinker with the possibilities of dynamic method invocation in ABAP objects and have run into the following issue:

Using the class CL_ABAP_CLASSDESCR I can determine the methods provided by a certain class and the methods' parameters. The method descriptions use the table line structure

begin of abap_parmdescr,
     length        type i,
     decimals      type i,
     type_kind     type abap_typekind,
     name          type abap_parmname,
     parm_kind     type abap_parmkind,
     by_value      type abap_bool,
     is_optional   type abap_bool,
   end of abap_parmdescr,

for describing parameters. When I know that a certain parameter has type REF TO <some class X> I don't see how I can retrieve the concrete class (that is: which class is <some class X>?). The parameter description seems to only say "the parameter is a reference", but it doesn't tell a reference to which class/data type is expected.

To give a code example of the issue: I declared a helper class ZCL_VH_OBJECT_MAP:

class ZCL_VH_OBJECT_MAP definition public final create public .

public section.

   class-methods CREATE_MAP
     importing
       value(IV_NUM_DEFAULT_ENTRIES) type I default 3
       value(IR_COPY_CONTENT_FROM) type ref to CL_OBJECT_MAP optional
     returning
       value(RR_MAP) type ref to CL_OBJECT_MAP .

ENDCLASS.

CLASS ZCL_VH_OBJECT_MAP IMPLEMENTATION.
   METHOD create_map.
     DATA lr_null TYPE REF TO object.

     IF ir_copy_content_from IS NOT BOUND.
       rr_map = NEW #( ).
     ELSE.
       rr_map = NEW #( ir_copy_content_from->map ).
     ENDIF.

     DO iv_num_default_entries TIMES.
       rr_map->put(
         EXPORTING
           key      = sy-index
           value    = lr_null    ).
     ENDDO.
   ENDMETHOD.
ENDCLASS.

Now I try to invoke the method CREATE_MAP dynamically like this:

REPORT zvh_di_2.

DATA: gr_object      TYPE REF TO object,
       gr_map         TYPE REF TO cl_object_map,
       gr_my_map      TYPE REF TO cl_object_map,
       gt_param_tab   TYPE abap_parmbind_tab,
       gs_param       TYPE abap_parmbind,
       gv_class_name TYPE string,
       gv_method_name TYPE string,
       gr_classdescr TYPE REF TO cl_abap_classdescr.

START-OF-SELECTION.

   BREAK-POINT.

   gv_class_name = `ZCL_VH_OBJECT_MAP`.
   gv_method_name = `CREATE_MAP`.

   gr_map    = NEW #( ).
   gr_object = gr_map. " up cast

   gr_classdescr ?= cl_abap_classdescr=>describe_by_name( gv_class_name ).

   " GR_CLASSDESCR->METHODS[1]-PARAMETERS contains the parameter description
   " for the single method I'd like to invoke dynamically below.
   " I can determine that for the parameter IR_COPY_CONTENT_FROM I have to
   " supply a reference.
   " But a REF TO which concrete class? Passing a REF TO OBJECT doesn't work, see below!

   gs_param-name = 'IR_COPY_CONTENT_FROM'.
   gs_param-kind = cl_abap_objectdescr=>exporting.

* GET REFERENCE OF gr_object INTO gs_param-value. " dumps
   GET REFERENCE OF gr_map INTO gs_param-value.      " works

   INSERT gs_param INTO TABLE gt_param_tab.

   gs_param-name = 'RR_MAP'.
   gs_param-kind = cl_abap_objectdescr=>receiving.
   GET REFERENCE OF gr_my_map INTO gs_param-value.
   INSERT gs_param INTO TABLE gt_param_tab.

   CALL METHOD (gv_class_name)=>(gv_method_name) PARAMETER-TABLE gt_param_tab.

How can I determine in the code which kind of reference I have to supply in the dynamic method invocation?

Re: ABAP OO/RTTI: dynamic method invocation and type determination

pfefferf — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:12:35 GMT

Hi Valentin,

unfortunately the descriptor classes do not return the information (as far as I know).

You can find the concrete type of a method parameter (for global classes) in table SEOSUBCODF.

I didn't check if there exists a utility class which delivers the information, but I hope the information helps a little bit.

Regards,

Florian

topic Re: ABAP OO/RTTI: dynamic method invocation and type determination in Application Development and Automation Discussions

ABAP OO/RTTI: dynamic method invocation and type determination

Re: ABAP OO/RTTI: dynamic method invocation and type determination