topic Re: difference in Application Development and Automation Discussions

difference

Former Member — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:52:23 GMT

Can anybody tell the difference betwwen LIKE and TYPE

Re: difference

Former Member — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:59:55 GMT

Hi,

ABAP distinguishes between types and objects. Types are descriptions that do not occupy memory. Objects are instances of types, and do occupy their own memory space. A type describes the technical attributes of all of the objects with that type.

You can use the addition

TYPE <type>

to refer to any data type <type> that is already known at this point in the program.

DATA <f> TYPE <type>.

The data object <f> has a data type corresponding to the type <type>.

DATA <f> LIKE <obj>.

The data object <f> inherits all of the technical attributes of the data object <obj>.

Take an example :

types : begin of ty_tab,

name(30),

pwd(10),

end of ty_tab.

data : itab like ty_tab.

See here we declared the structure of ty_tab, which do not occupy memory. So if we run this, we will get compile time error like this : Field TY_TAB is unknown. It is neither in one of the specified tables nor defined by a DATA statement.

So in this case u need to correct the error with "TYPE" statement...like this.

types : begin of ty_tab,

name(30),

pwd(10),

end of ty_tab.

data : itab type ty_tab.

Refer these

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/fc/eb2ff3358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/content.htm

Thanks

Re: difference

Former Member — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:00:05 GMT

You can use the addition

TYPE <type>

to refer to any data type <type> that is already known at this point in the program.

DATA <f> TYPE <type>.

The data object <f> has a data type corresponding to the type <type>.

DATA <f> LIKE <obj>.

The data object <f> inherits all of the technical attributes of the data object <obj>.

Take an example :

types : begin of ty_tab,

name(30),

pwd(10),

end of ty_tab.

data : itab like ty_tab.

So in this case u need to correct the error with "TYPE" statement...like this.

types : begin of ty_tab,

name(30),

pwd(10),

end of ty_tab.

data : itab type ty_tab.

Refer these

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/fc/eb2ff3358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/content.htm

reward point if helpful.

Regards

Prajwal K .

Re: difference

Former Member — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:00:55 GMT

Here is a simple main difference ..

Type : it will allocate memory during execution (object type).

Like : it will allocate memory immediatly.

---type will improve performance.

---p is packed type wherein we can restrict decimal values.

var type p decimals 2.

---float can hold more value than packed data type

Reward if helpful.

Re: difference

Former Member — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:01:48 GMT

Hi,

data field(18) type c. "here c is a predefined 'data type'

data field type matnr . "here matnr is a 'data element'

data field like mara-matnr. "here mara-matnr is a 'data object'

'type' is used to refer a data type / data element.(ie given type is the data type of our obj)

'like' is used to refer a data obj(ie copy the data type of that obj to our obj)

Cheers,

Will.

Re: difference

former_member156446 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 05:03:05 GMT

Hi Suguna

In short to understand just think like :

if you declare some thing with LIKE memory is taken/allocated

if you declare some thing with TYPE memory is given only at runtime.