Getting Started with ABAP: Data Dictionary Introduction

This is the third blog post in this series. In the previous blog post we learned use of forward slash, colon and how to print multiple text in program.

In this blog post we will start learning Data Dictionary part.

What is Data Dictionary?

Data dictionary is the central repository where we can create and maintained data definition (Metadata). Metadata is data about data.

Data dictionary store data definition of user define types (Data Elements, Structures and Table Type). Also, we can create and maintained the database objects like tables, views and index.

User Define Types

1. Data Elements

It contains technical attributes like data type, length and semantic information like short description.

2. Structure

It is a collection of components.

3. Table Type

Table type describe the structure and functional attributes of an internal table in ABAP programming.

Database Objects

1. Tables

It stores the data in the form of rows and columns.

2. Views

View is created by combining the data from one or more tables. It is a virtual table that doesn’t exist in any physical location.

3. Index

It enables the faster access to row in the table.

Domain

It contains the technical properties like data type and length. It is assigned to data element.

Lock Objects

These are used to synchronize access to the same data by one or more user.

Search Helps

These are objects which assigned to screen fields for providing input help.

Here we have completed the introduction of Data Dictionary. We will learn how to create all these objects and how to use it in coming blog post.

Next blog post Getting started with ABAP: How to Create Table Part 1

Here you can check previous blog post Get Started With ABAP: PART 2

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