Visibility of Data Objects

Data objects are always declared locally in a program. In terms of visibility, that is, their capacity to be addressed by name, a data object in ABAP can have local, global, or cross-program visibility.

• Locally-visible data objects are created within a procedure (FORM or FUNCTION) using a declarative statement, and are visible within that procedure after the point at which they are defined. A locally-visible object with the same name as a globally-visible object will obscure the global object within the procedure.

• Globally-visible data objects are created within a program, that is, anywhere but in a procedure, using a declarative statement other than TABLES. They are visible within that program after the point at which they are defined (as long as they are not obscured in a procedure by a local data object with the same name).

• A data object has cross-program visibility if it is defined using TABLES or DATA ... COMMON PART in a program. It is visible globally within the program from the point at which it is defined. In this respect, it is the same as a globally-visible object. However, the object is also placed in the cross-program memory that is shared at runtime by all programs that contain a corresponding data defintion.