Preview Original paying document published on : http://expertplug.com/materials/training/sap-abap-training-domains-data-elements In this document, the concepts of data elements and domains are covered. You can find many more SAP training material on www.ExpertPlug.com. (you can download the preview there) ExpertPlug is an SAP marketplace for training materials and an online community of experts. We offer a simple way for the global SAP workforce, consulting companies and industry to market their skills and find quality information. As an SAP Expert, you can also market your SAP skills and make extra cash by publishing SAP documents on www.ExpertPlug.com.

1. SAP – ABAP TRAINING
DOMAINS, DATA ELEMENTS

2. DOMAINS, DATA ELEMENTS
2|Page

3. DOMAINS, DATA ELEMENTS
1 Introduction
Data, stored in any system, comprises of a technical attribute which indicates where it’s a
numeric data or character data .The data definition henceforth has to be associated with a
data type. The data types, in general, can be character, numeric, integer, floating, packed
decimals etc.
In ABAP, the data types can be of elementary data types or complex data types. They also
introduce two new data types namely Data elements and Domains, which we would discuss
in details in the further sections.
The first question that arises while talking of Data Elements and Domains is- why is this
needed or the relevance of introducing these two concepts, when a data can be created and
maintained in a character or numeric format.
2 Data elements & Domain
In this section, we would look into Data elements and Domains and how they are made use
of in ABAP workbench for data processing and data storage in the underlying database.
2.1 Domains
Domains are comprised of a data type, the length associated with it. They also can bear
all possible values that the data type can accept or process. In short, they provide the
syntactical information pertaining to a data that the system can process .A domain,
created can be re-used in different contexts, where the data type and the definitions are
similar.
Business Case
For e.g.: in the business case, where the data pertaining to salary trend in an industry
has to be analyses with the current salary structure of employees in XYZ Company.
In previous document, while creating a database table, we had made of pre-defined data
types whereas, in this section we would understand Domains and data elements and
how they can be made part of the complex data types like structures, internal tables.
3|Page

4. DOMAINS, DATA ELEMENTS
In the business case, the main data that is to be identified, stored and analyzed pertains
to the information on salary- which is an amount field which has a currency associated
with it. The salary, being an amount, can also have decimal places and the number of
decimal places will be determined by the currency associated with the amount.
In SAP, there is a data type called CURR, which represents currency amount. Since in
this business case, we are trying to create a domain which will be comprised of Currency
data type with 2 decimal points. This domain can be used to create further data
elements to store industry standard salary amount and the current salary linked to
each employee category in the XYZ concern as is described below
As described in the initial document, we navigate to SAP Easy Access Menu and to
ABAP Workbench Tool as is shown below or directly via Transaction code: SE11
2.1.1 Create Domains
In the ABAP dictionary, we could see the option of Data Type.
Step 1: Select the radio button option for the Domain as shown in the screen below
4|Page

5. Preview Original paying document published on :
http://expertplug.com/materials/training/sap-abap-training-domains-data-elements
You can find many more full SAP training material and SAP jobs on http://expertplug.com/.
ExpertPlug is an SAP marketplace for training materials and an online community of experts. We
offer a simple way for the global SAP workforce, consulting companies and industry to market their
skills and find quality information.
As an SAP Expert, you can also market your SAP skills and make extra revenue by publishing SAP
documents on http://expertplug.com/.