CONVERT (ABAP Keyword) introduction and details
CONVERT
Variants
1.
CONVERT DATE f1 INTO INVERTED-DATE f2.
2. CONVERT INVERTED-DATE f1 INTO DATE
f2.
Effect
Allows conversion between different formats which do not
have their own type (see also MOVE ).
The field f1 is converted from the
source format to the target format and placed in f2 .
At present, the
following formats are supported:
DATE ==> INVERTED-DATE INVERTED-DATE
==> DATE
Both formats form the nine’s complement of internal date
representation, e.g. 19950511 ==> 80049488 or 80049488 ==> 19950511. In
inverse date format, the most recent date has the lowest numerical value. This
is useful when sorting date specifications.
Note
The technique of
modifying the sequence of dates by inverting the internal date format is only
used in very rare cases. For example, you can sort internal tables in ascending
or descending date order much more elegantly with the additons … ASCENDING
bzw. … DESCENDING of the SORT statement.
Example
DATA DATE_INV
LIKE SY-DATUM.
CONVERT DATE SY-DATUM INTO INVERTED-DATE
DATE_INV.
If, for example, the internal representation of 11.05.95 in
SY-DATUM is 19950511, the value of DATE_INV after execution of the CONVERT
statement is 80049488.
Note
Runtime
errors
CONVERT_ILLEGAL_CONVERSION : Conversion not possible due to
incorrect field length.