Defining complex types in ABAP

Question

Hi Folks,
I am new to the ABAP world and has started programming in it for about two weeks now (therefore, two weeks of experience so far ). I have a question regarding definition of complex types in ABAP. Basically what I want to achieve is to define a type which is either mytype1 or mytype2. During the runtime, it should be decided whether complextype is of mytype1 or of mytype2. Maybe to put some more concrete context: I will call a method with an object of type "complextype". Depending how I set this object, this will be of mytype1 or mytype2. Please see the code schema below.
TYPES BEGIN OF mytype1.
    TYPES:
    TYPES END OF mytype1.
TYPES BEGIN OF mytype2.
    TYPES:
    TYPES END OF mytype2.
TYPES BEGIN OF complextype.
    TYPES:
          mytype_name TYPE mytype1,
          mytype_name TYPE mytype2.
    TYPES END OF complextype.
Is this a correct way to approach? If yes, how can I express this (either mytype1 or mytype2 but only one of them at a certain time) in ABAP types correctly?
I will appreciate any kind of help.
Thanks a million,
Boldbaatar
Edited by: Boldbaatar Tsend-Ayush on Apr 6, 2011 8:24 PM

Answer 1

Hi,
I think you should use the dynamic data reference .
TYPES BEGIN OF mytype1.
    TYPES:
    TYPES END OF mytype1.
TYPES BEGIN OF mytype2.
    TYPES:
    TYPES END OF mytype2.
data: dref_complex type ref to data.
field-sumbols:<fs_any> type any.
if type eq mytype1.
l_type = 'MY_TYPE1'.
elseif type eq mytype2.
l_type = 'MY_TYPE2'.
endif.
create data dref_complex type (l_type).
"In order to access the components of  dref_complex , you should assign the same to field symbol
assing dref->*  to <fs_any>.
"then u can use  ASSIGN COMPONENT to get individual components
Regards
Arshad