Name of 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 can define a value range describing the valid data values for the fields that refer to it.
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 the domain values are changed. This ensures consistency for all these fields.
Data Type in ABAP Dictionary
The data class describes the data format at the user interface.
If a table field, structure field or a data element is used in an ABAP program, the data class is converted to a format used by the ABAP processor.
When a table is created in the database, the data class of a table field is converted to a corresponding data format of the database system used.
Length (No. of Characters)
Some data classes have a fixed length. For example, the data class CLNT (client) always has three places. If you enter an invalid length for such a data class, the system will give you a warning and then correct the error automatically.
The types RAWSTRING and STRING for LOB s have a variable length. A maximum length can be specified, but there is no upper limit. The maximum length is an actual length that cannot be exceeded. The maximum length is used for optimizations when storing string fields in the database.
The type SSTRING also has a variable length, but this is restricted upwards by the maximum length that can be specified. The greatest maximum length is 1333. The benefit of using it, and not CHAR, is that it is assigned to the ABAP type string. Its advantage over STRING is that it can also be used for key fields in database tables.
When using data types from ABAP Dictionary which are based on the predefined types RAWSTRING, STRING, and SSTRING, you have to consider in ABAP programs that the maximum lengths defined in ABAP Dictionary have no effect on the assigned ABAP types string and xstring. As a result, writing a string that is too long to a database can raise an exception. If required, you therefore have to apply a length restriction for strings in ABAP programs, for which the predefined function dbmaxlen can be used.
Number of decimal places allowed for the value
Decimal places are only meaningful for the data types CURR, DEC, FLTP, QUAN, DF16_DEC, and DF34_DEC.
Lowercase letters allowed/not allowed
If this indicator is set, when you enter upper case and lower case values into a field refering to this domain
the separate values are stored.
Otherwise, all letters entered will be converted to upper case and stored in the upper case format. This will be in effect
for all fields that refer to the domain.
Flag to determine if a field refering to this domain can contain negative values, if it can this flag must he set.
When the field contents are output on the screen, the first position of the output is reserved for a plus or minus sign.
If the indicator is not set but the field contains negative values, problems may occur during screen output.
You can only make entries in this field for data types DEC, FLTP, QUAN, and CURR, as well as for decimal floating point numbers.
indicates if the domain contains fixed values
Flag which specifies whether the set of values of a domain is restricted through entry of fixed values.
Value table is a table that contains the list of values that can be input into fields refering to this domain.
If all the fields referring to a domain should be checked against a certain table, this information can be stored in the domain
by entering a value table.
The system will then suggest the value table as check table when you try to define a foreign key for this field. You can override this proposal.
Entering a value table does not implement a check. The check against the value table only takes place when a foreign key is defined.
Conversion takes place when converting the contents of a screen field from display format to SAP-internal format and vice versa and when outputting with the ABAP statement WRITE, depending on the data type of the field.
If the standard conversion is not suitable, it can be overridden by specifying a conversion routine in the underlying domain.
A conversion routine is identified by its five-place name and is stored as a group of two function modules.
The function modules have a fixed naming convention. The following function modules are assigned to conversion routine xxxxx:
CONVERSION_EXIT_xxxxx_INPUT
CONVERSION_EXIT_xxxxx_OUTPUT
The INPUT module performs the conversion from display format to internal format. The OUTPUT module performs the conversion from internal format to display format.
If a screen field refers to a domain with a conversion routine, this conversion routine is executed automatically each time an entry is made in this screen field or when values are displayed with this screen field.
Activation status of an object.
There are the following statuses:
The activation flag contains the information about the partial activity of an active ABAP Dictionary object (i.e. an object with value ‘A’ in field AS4LOCAL)
If the value is not equal to SPACE, the object is partially active. The value SPACE means that the object is active.
A partially active object is consistent and can be used, but an error occurred when adjusting dependent objects.
Partially active domains and data elements can be used immediately.
When using partially active tables, you must first make sure that the ABAP Dictionary and runtime objects agree.
The activation type determines whether the table can be activated directly from the ABAP Dictionary or whether the runtime object has to be generated by a C program before the activation of the table in the ABAP Dictionary can take place.
Entry of an activation type is optional and only of importance for tables of the runtime environment
Possible activation types:
Original Language in Repository objects
The MASTERLANG field contains the maintenance language of a Repository object.
In ABAP Dictionary objects, this field is only used for data elements. If this field has any contents for other ABAP Dictionary objects, these are not relevant.
Indicator that at least one domain append exists
Indicates if it is a generated proxy object
Defines output Style for Decfloat Types
The checkbox AM/PM time format supported is used for specifying the time format to be used on screens (24-hour or 12-hour format) for time fields (fields of data type TIMS).
By default, time fields are issued in the 24-hour format. If the checkbox AM/PM time format supported is set, the time format specified in the user master record is used for display on screens (if sufficient space is available). In the user master record, a 12-hour format with AM (am) or PM (pm) can be specified.
If the checkbox AM/PM time format supported is set, there are the following options for the output length:
