DATA DICTIONARY

Data Dictionary
The ABAP/4 Data Dictionary is the central component of ABAP/4 Repository. It is centralised and structured source of information for business applications It is the source of every every definition with in R/3 system. It is totally integrated with other tools of Dev. environment like Screen painter etc.,

Some of the main available functions in the ABAP/4 Dict.

Management of data definitions (Select, Insert, Update and Delete) Preserve data integrity. Information about the defined relationship between two tables or even dictionary tells whether table is active or empty.

Dictionary Objects
Tables Structures View Data element Domain Lock Objects and Search Helps

Tables
A Table is a two dimensional data matrix. A Table contains Rows and Columns. Rows contain Records while Column contains Fields. A Table contains zero or multiple Records. Transparent Table, Pooled Table and Clustered Table etc., comes under Tables.

Structures
A Structure is similar to a Table that do not have any contents. It is like Table or View without any records. The basic difference between Structure and the Table is that the Structure does not exist at the underlying data base level. Structure exists as Definition in the Dictionary.

View
A View is an imaginary table. It contains data, which are really stored in other Tables. The contents for the View are dynamically generated when called from program.

Data element
Data element is an intermediate Object between Domain and Table field. It is the definition of the Properties and Type for a Table field. A field in R/3 system is always associated with Data element, which at the same time is related to Domain.

Domain

It is the formal definition of data types from Technical point of view. They set attributes such as data type, length, possible value range and so on.

Lock Objects
Used for locking the access to data base. This mechanism is used to enforce data integrity, i.e., two users can not update the same data at the same time. With Lock Objects, you can lock a table field or whole table.

Search Helps
Search Helps are referred as Match Code Objects in ABAP/4 programming A Match Code is a tool to help you in searching for data from the database.