Question Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed in Enterprise Resource Planning Q&A

Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 03:02:16 GMT

I have a class in which I have defined various Text elements.
For eg.
H01=Title1
H02=Title2
H03=Title3
H04=Title4
etc.
I am trying to print all the titles in my class. I have a loop in my class and I am building the text element name dynamically.

lv_title = `TEXT-H` && conv ty_n2( sy-tabix ).

Now, I use this variable to dynamically access the text element in the program

assign (lv_title) to <title>.

Class is syntactically correct and executes fine with expected results.

But, I get a warning saying: "The old variant of "<dynamic-object>" should not be used in the current ABAP language version."

If this is considered the "old" variant, what is the equivalent "new" variant to access variables by name?

I am on ABAP Cloud version, so that limits the commands available to me (for eg. READ TEXTPOOL isn't available to me)

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

shantraj6 — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:18:05 GMT

You can use left = right

something like this ----- <title> = lv_title.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 08:02:29 GMT

Read the ABAP Cloud documentation to see the latest dynamic variants available. I currently see: "This syntax is only supported temporarily in the current ABAP language version and must be replaced with valid syntax for that version [...] This variant should not be used any more. Especially for accessing structure components, other variants are preferable." So, it means, use: ASSIGN COMPONENT OF STRUCTURE.

ABAP Cloud - ABAP Keyword Documentation

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:45:22 GMT

@Sandra_Rossi I did read the documentation. There is nothing in it suggested as an alternative.

https://help.sap.com/doc/abapdocu_cp_index_htm/CLOUD/en-US/ABAPASSIGN_MEM_AREA_DYNAMIC_DOBJ.html

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:49:13 GMT

Probably you didn't understand my question. Please read through once more.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

SAPlino — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:01:08 GMT

Ciao Juwin.

The problem is that TEXT is not a structure so these suggested variants cannot be used.

... { struc-(comp) }
| { dref->(comp_name) }
| { COMPONENT comp OF STRUCTURE struc } ...

I suggest to declare a proper structure like my_text and to put or duplicate the text symbol's values there as subcomponents.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 13:01:42 GMT

I don't want to duplicate the text symbol values. I want to just access the existing values.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 14:03:47 GMT

The documentation is clear on ASSIGN for normal variables, but your issue is about accessing Text Symbols dynamically. Your way of programming is not clean code, you'd better explicitly code the conditions. A condition based on a number should not refer to a text symbol with same number. Instead, use a case condition or whatever is best for legibility.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 03:07:49 GMT

@Sandra_Rossi The code may be oversimplified in the original post and that may be the reason why you think it is coded without conditions. That's not the real case. In any case, since I haven't received any answers, I would have to assume that there isn't an alternative to this dynamic assign option.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

RaymondGiuseppi — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:50:15 GMT

Why don't you use RS_TEXTPOOL_READ

lv_classn = iv_class. lv_classn+30(2) = 'CP'. TRANSLATE lv_classn USING ' ='. lv_programm = lv_classn. CALL FUNCTION 'RS_TEXTPOOL_READ' EXPORTING objectname = lv_programm action = 'SHOW' language = iv_langu TABLES tpool = lt_table EXCEPTIONS object_not_found = 1 permission_failure = 2 invalid_program_type = 3 error_occured = 4 action_cancelled = 5.

Or you could use the READ TEXTPOOL statement followed by some clean ASSIGN syntax for the type 'I' (text symbols)

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Tue, 20 May 2025 10:52:17 GMT

No pragma exists to remove the warning but you may rewrite your code to avoid field symbols.

As per the ABAP Cloud - ABAP Keyword Documentation: "This syntax is only supported temporarily in the current ABAP language version and must be replaced with valid syntax for that version [...] This variant should not be used any more. Especially for accessing structure components, other variants are preferable."

If you have a structure, use ASSIGN COMPONENT ... OF STRUCTURE ...

That's not possible for the pseudo structure TEXT of Symbol Texts, but you may rewrite this way which is more clean code (of course, I don't know what your real case is, so I use a dummy example):

CLASS zcl_test DEFINITION PUBLIC FINAL CREATE PUBLIC. PUBLIC SECTION. INTERFACES if_oo_adt_classrun. ENDCLASS. CLASS zcl_test IMPLEMENTATION. METHOD if_oo_adt_classrun~main. TYPES: BEGIN OF ty_month, astrological_sign TYPE string, END OF ty_month. TYPES ty_n2 TYPE n LENGTH 2. DATA months TYPE TABLE OF ty_month. DATA lv_title TYPE string. " Original code DATA(month) = months[ astrological_sign = 'Lion' ]. lv_title = `TEXT-H` && CONV ty_n2( sy-tabix ). ASSIGN (lv_title) TO FIELD-SYMBOL(<title>). " Suggested clean code DATA(month_number) = line_index( months[ astrological_sign = 'Lion' ] ). DATA(month_name) = SWITCH string( month_number WHEN 1 THEN 'January'(H01) WHEN 2 THEN 'February'(H02) " Etc. ). ENDMETHOD. ENDCLASS.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:11:22 GMT

It's fine for classic ABAP but it's not accepted in ABAP Cloud, the function module is not released and the ABAP statement is not ported to Cloud. XCO doesn't currently permit working with text pools as far as I can see.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

RaymondGiuseppi — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:27:52 GMT

Is the utility class CL_FDT_SERVICES available?

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 14:35:42 GMT

No, CL_FDT_SERVICES is not released either. I checked in BTP ABAP environment trial. I guess it's the same status in S/4HANA Cloud.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Tue, 20 May 2025 01:33:31 GMT

@Sandra_Rossi @RaymondGiuseppi

I recently came across another use of this dynamic assignment. This syntax is used to access Object Attributes in the well-known ABAP2XLSX, in zCl_Excel_Common Class and that also throws the same warning.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Tue, 20 May 2025 10:57:23 GMT

The warning is about ASSIGN (variable_containing_variable_name) TO <field_symbol>, so technically speaking it's exactly the same case. For this one, the replacement is ASSIGN instance->(variable_containing_attribute_name) TO <field_symbol>. Note that, for now, abap2xlsx contains code which compiles in all versions since ABAP 7.02, so it cannot contain the latter form, maybe in the future there will be some arbitration if ABAP loses its ascending compatibility.

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Juwin — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:01:52 GMT

For anyone reading this in the future: Correct answer for this is in the i18n XCO library (using XCO_CP_TEXT_POOL).

https://help.sap.com/docs/btp/sap-business-technology-platform/i18n-apis#text-pools

Re: Dynamic assignment variant for Field-symbols not allowed

Sandra_Rossi — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:50:38 GMT

Nice finding, thanks for the feedback!