Difference between Data Element and domain

[Former Member]

Hi,

Can anybody give me the exact information for data element and domain.

Thanks,

Sriram.

[Former Member]

Data type :

A data element is an elementary type. It describes the type attributes (data type, field length and possibly the number of decimal places) and screen information (explanatory text or field help) about unstructured data objects (table fields and structure fields or variables).

Table fields and structure fields with the same contents should refer to the same data element. This ensures that the attributes of these fields are always consistent.

A data element can be referenced in ABAP programs with TYPE. This permits you to define variables that take on the type attributes of the data element in an ABAP program.

Domain :

A domain describes the technical attributes of a field, such as the data type or the number of positions in a field. The domain defines primarily a value range describing the valid data values for the fields referring to this domain.

Different technical fields of the same type can be combined in a domain. Fields referring to the same domain are changed at the same time when a domain is changed. This ensures the consistency of these fields.

Additional info about data element

1.Data type, number of places and possibly the decimal places were entered directly. In this case the field is not filled.

2.A data element is assigned to the field. The field then gets its data type, length and possibly decimal places from this data element. The semantic attributes of the element (field help, representation of the field in input templates with keyword text, column headers for list output of the table contents and editing of the output with parameter IDs) are also copied.

Message was edited by: Venkat

[Former Member]

Hi Sriram

Difference:

Data element contains the business and technical information about a field. It contains Data type, length, field labels. Data element can contain a domain within it for type and length information instead of 'built-in type' and we can also associate search help with Data Element.

Domain contains only technical information about a field like type, length (and decimal places).

Regards

Ashish Jain

[Former Member]

Hi

For more detailed information, see links:

For Data Elements:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/90/8d72feb1af11d194f600a0c929b3c3/frameset.htm

For Domain:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/cf/21ede5446011d189700000e8322d00/frameset.htm

Cheers

Ashish

[VijayasekarK]

Hi ,

Domain represents technical details and data element

represents business terms.

vijay

[Former Member]

Hi,

Both are used to describe field properties.

Domain : Define o/p width, technical data type and value range

Data element : You can define further characteristics i.e. search help,PID.. and field lables.

In nut-shell, Domain act as parent. Data element would be child which can inherite domain properities as such, have more unique advantages.

If you need further informatin Goto->SAP help documentation.

/karthikeyan

[Former Member]

Hi Poornima,

Domains:

Domain is the central object for describing the technical characteristics of an attribute of an business objects. It describes the value range of the field.

Data Element:

It is used to describe the semantic definition of the table fields like description the field. Data element describes how a field can be displayed to end-user.

Regs,

Venkat Ramanan

[Samar_05]

Domain – It defines the technical attributes of a field, such as data type, length, and value range.

Data Element – It defines the semantic meaning and also includes the technical attributes of a field.