Pass Structured table into dynamic table parameter in public method

Question

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have a requiremet to pass (1 at a time) any number of tables into a reuseable method in a custom class.  The Method code is as follows:
method CREATE_OUTBOUND_FILE.
* Importing VALUE( IV_PATHNAME )  TYPE PATHEXTERN File Destination
* Importing VALUE( IT_FILE_RECORD ) TYPE REF TO DATA  Table with Output
* Importing VALUE( IV_RECORD_STRUCTURE )  TYPE STRING OPTIONAL  Record Structure
* Importing VALUE( IV_DELIMITER )     TYPE STRING     File Delimiter
* Exporting VALUE( EV_RECORD_CNT )  TYPE STRING Record Count
  Data:
        ls_line_cnt(6) type n,
        lt_data_struc  type zty_ddic_struc_T,
        ls_string      type string.
  field-SYMBOLS: <fs_string> type any.
* Open Dataset for outputting file details
  Open dataset iv_pathname for output in text mode encoding default.
  Assign ls_string to <fs_string> CASTING TYPE (iv_record_structure).
  loop at it_file_record into <fs_string>.
    transfer <fs_string> to iv_pathname.
    Add 1 to ls_line_cnt.
    clear <fs_string>.
  endloop.
  ev_record_cnt = ls_line_cnt.
where IV_PATHNAME = output destination & filename
            IT_FILE_REC     = data table
            IV_RECORD_STRUCTURE = is ddic structure definition for the data table
            IV_DELIMITER = file delimiter, in this case, let's say it's C (for CSV)
     and EV_RECORD_CNT is a count of numbe of records processed.
Lets say, for example, I wish to load data from table SFLIGHT into the method when program A is executed.  Then another time I wish to excute Program B which is passing in data of table  SFLCONN2.  I hope that by using the "type ref to data" defintion, I can pass the table contents through. Is this true?
Secondly, I'm getting a syntax error saying that "IT_FILE_RECORD" is not defined as a table (and therefore can't be looped at), and therefore can't be read.  How can I access the data in this table in preparation for output.
Any assistance or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Steve

Answer 1

Hi Stephen ,
Graham already gve part of the solution.
If you declare
Importing VALUE( IT_FILE_RECORD ) TYPE REF TO DATA
it does not make sense to declare to pass by VALUE because you will not change this refernce in the method. Calling this method, you must pass a refefernce.
data:
  lr_ref type ref to data.
get reference of <your itab here> into lr_ref.
CREATE_OUTBOUND_FILE( ...IT_FILE_RECORD = lr_ref ... )
In the method, it goes as graham explained.
Anyway, I would declare the table parameter as
Importing IT_FILE_RECORD TYPE TABLE
The your code could work, but you will have troube with any non-character fields in the tables.
Regards,
Clemens