We differentiate between data objects and data types in ABAP.

Data types are mere

descriptions that are not linked with an address in the memory. Data objects are instances of
data types and occupy memory to store the specific data that a program uses at runtime.

You can define data objects in a program using the DATA statement. As shown in the figure,
the name of the data object is followed by a TYPE addition. The type is linked to the data
object statically and cannot be changed at runtime.

Other syntax variants are available (for legacy reasons). Some of these legacy variants are no
longer supported within classes.

You can declare data objects using the following:

 Predefined ABAP types

The ABAP runtime environment provides predefined data types. Incomplete types (C,
N, P, and X) and complete types (I, F, D, T, STRING, XSTRING, DECFLOAT16,
and DECFLOAT34) are differentiated depending on whether the system requires an
additional length specification when you declare the corresponding data objects.

 Global data types

Global data types refer to predefined Dictionary types, which largely correspond to
the predefined ABAP types.

 Local data types

 The TYPES statement defines local data types within the ABAP program. The local
data types refer to predefined ABAP types or global data types from the Dictionary.

The numeric ABAP data types differ in the following aspects:

 Rules for storage
 Value range
 Arithmetic used in calculations