What does it do? A string expression formulates an operation (calculation) with character-like operands. The result of a string expression is a character string. A string expression consists of
exactly one string template |string_tmpl| or
two or more operands operand1, operand2 ... that are concatenated as a character string using the string operator , where one of the operands can itself be a string template. String expressions can occur in the read positions of certain statements and, in particular, on the right side of an assignment with the assignment operator =. The operands of string expressions must be elementary and convertible to character-like data types. Structures with purely character-like flat components cannot, however, be specified. If constructor expressions are specified as operands of string expressions, their data type is not determined by the string expression. The # character can be specified for the data type of the constructor expression only if the type can be determined from the constructor expression itself.
Latest notes:
String expressions and arithmetic expressions cannot be mixed. Arithmetic expressions can, however, also be specified as embedded expressions of string templates. Furthermore, the formatting options of embedded expressions or string functions in operand positions can contain arithmetic expressions as arguments.
The conversion operator CONV can be applied to a structure with character-like-only components to use it as an operand of a string expression.
Due to their special conversion rules, enumerated objects can be used as operands of string expressions regardless of their base type, which can produce unwanted results. This is why an extended program check message can be produced in this case. A special rule for the conversion operator CONV can be implemented to use the name of the enumerated object instead of the actual enumerated value.
If, on the right side of an assignment, strings are appended to a variable specified with the type string on the left side of the assignment, the variable is used directly in specific cases without producing an interim result. It should be ensured that this optimization is not undone, especially in loops. NON_V5_HINTS
The program DEMO_EXPRESSIONS shows examples of how to use string expressions. ABAP_HINT_END
ABAP_EXAMPLE_VX5 Output of a string expression. The expression concatenates a text string literal with a string template that contains an embedded expression. ABEXA 00120 ABAP_EXAMPLE_END
