How many bytes are required to store an integer?

[Former Member]

Hello,

I ran this statement: DATA x(2) TYPE i value 234.

I thought the value of x should be 23, because i defined it with the lenght of 2 bytes.

In the sap help i found that the lenght of an integer is 4. But i can define DATA x(5).

I am little confused.

Thanks,

Efren

[raymond_giuseppi]

Just perform a syntax check (not an activation) and you will get the answer "Length specification not allowed with type "I".", Here the editor allows you an invalid input, only raising a warning. As integer length is always 4 bytes, your (2) or (5) are ignored by compiler. (if you want to give a length use a TYPE "N" where you get one byte per digit, what you were wrongly expecting for integer which are stored in binary)

Regards,

Raymond

[Former Member]

Right.

But when i define DATA x TYPE i value 23231234, the value of x shouldn't be 2323? Because the lenght if 4 no?

Thanks.

[raymond_giuseppi]

No you confuse between type "I" integer, stored binary mode, and type "N" stored in character mode

23231234 is stored

- "01627B02" in binary/integer - TYPE I

- "23231234" in numc/char non-unicode - TYPE N on a non-Unicode system

- "0031003200330034" in numc/char unicode - TYPE N on a Unicode system

Remarks :

- TYPE N allows a length declaration.

- TYPE I allows a range from -2147483648 to +2147483647 (4294967296 different values 2^32, minus sign)

Regards,

Raymond

[Former Member]

Thanks Raymond.