What does it do? A constructor expression with the reference operator REF creates either a data reference variable that points to the argument dobj or controls a table expression table_exp. Existing data objects and table expressions can be specified as an argument, but no other expressions or function calls.
ABAP Alternative 1 ... REF type( dobj )
What does it do? If a data object dobj is specified as an argument, the operator REF works like the statement GET REFERENCE and creates a data reference variable as a result that points to the specified data object dobj. type determines the static type of the result. The following can be specified for type:
A non-generic data type dtype that satisfies the rules of upcasts in data references.
The generic data type data.
The # character for a data type that is determined by the following hierarchy:
If the data type required in an operand position is unique and known completely, the operand type is used.
If the operand type cannot be derived from the context, the data type of dobj is used.
If the data type of dobj is not known statically, the generic type data is used. The parentheses must contain exactly one unnamed argument dobj. If offsets/lengths (+off(len)) are specified, the data type dobj here cannot be string or xstring.
Latest notes:
The conversion operator REF is suitable for avoiding declarations of helper variables that are only necessary, for example, to specify data reference variables as actual parameters.
No empty parentheses can be specified after REF. NON_V5_HINTS ABAP_HINT_END
ABAP_EXAMPLE_VX5 Filling of an internal table with the value operator VALUE, where the component dref is given a value using REF. This is an excerpt from the executable example for the class CL_ABAP_BROWSER. Other use cases can be found in the executable examples of ADBC, where parameter bindings are used. ABEXA 00903 ABAP_EXAMPLE_END
ABAP Alternative 2 ... REF type( tab_exp )
What does it do? If a table expression table_exp is specified as an argument, the operator REF controls the type of its result and enables a default value to be specified for unfound lines, as described in the related section.
ABAP_EXAMPLE_VX5 The result of the operator REF is a data reference variable that points to the fifth line of the internal table itab. ABEXA 00904 ABAP_EXAMPLE_END
