Runtime Type Services (RTTS)

RTTS (RunTime Type Services) allows to get the definition of variables or to create them during program execution. RTTS is made of 2 components:

• RTTI (RunTime Type Identification) is used to get the definition of existing variables or existing types
• RTTC (RunTime Type Creation) is used to create new variables with any definition; they must be followed by the ABAP statement CREATE DATA ... TYPE HANDLE ... to create the variable.

RTTI and RTTC may be called using methods in CL_ABAP_*DESCR classes. Each class have both RTTI and RTTC methods.

Class	RTTI methods	RTTC methods	Attributes	Comments
CL_ABAP_TYPEDESCR | | | | |		describe_by_data  describe_by_data_ref  describe_by_object_ref describe_by_name	absolute_name  type_kind  length  decimals  kind	describe_by_name allows to get the definition of a DDIC object.  kind represent the general type (elementary, structure, table, reference, class, interface ) while type_kind represents the detailed type (character, string, flat structure, etc.)
|‑‑CL_ABAP_DATADESCR | | | | | | | | | |			is_instantiatable  is_read_only  applies_to_data  applies_to_data_ref get_data_type_kind
| |‑‑CL_ABAP_ELEMDESCR | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |		get_n  get_c  get_string  get_xstring  get_i  get_f  get_d  get_t  get_x  get_p	edit_mask  help_id  output_length
| |‑‑CL_ABAP_REFDESCR | | | | | |	get_referenced_type  get_ref_to_data  get_ref_to_object	create		Corresponds to variables "type ref to data" and objects "type ref to object"
| |‑‑CL_ABAP_COMPLEXDESCR
| |‑‑CL_ABAP_STRUCTDESCR | | | | | |	get_components	create	struct_kind  components  has_include
| |‑‑CL_ABAP_TABLEDESCR | | | | |	get_table_line_type	create	key  initial_size  key_defkind  has_unique_key  table_kind
|‑‑CL_ABAP_OBJECTDESCR | | | | |			interfaces  types  attributes  methods  events
|‑‑CL_ABAP_CLASSDESCR | | | |	get_super_class_type  get_friend_types  get_class_name  is_shared_memory_enabled		class_kind  create_visibility
|‑‑CL_ABAP_INTFDESCR	get_interface_type  get_type  get_attribute_type  get_method_parameter_type get_event_parameter_type		intf_kind