Data Element Vs Domain

[Former Member]

What is the differnce between Data Element and Domain?

[Former Member]

dataelement tells semantic attributes of a field

domain tells technical attributes of a field

domain

A table is composed of fields. To create a field you need a data element.A data element's definition requires a domain.

The domain contains the technical characteristics of a field, such as the field length and data type.

When you create a new field, you must decide whether to create a new domain or reuse an existing one. To make this decision, determine whether the data type or length of your field should be dependent on an existing SAP field. If your field should be independent, create a new domain. If your field should be dependent, reuse an existing SAP domain. Similarly, you should reuse data elements if your field labels and documentation should change when SAP changes theirs.

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Data element provides business context. i.e., it provides field labels for the field in the backend,

Data type :

A data element is an elementary type. It describes the type attributes (data type, field length and possibly the number of decimal places) and screen information (explanatory text or field help) about unstructured data objects (table fields and structure fields or variables).

Table fields and structure fields with the same contents should refer to the same data element. This ensures that the attributes of these fields are always consistent.

A data element can be referenced in ABAP programs with TYPE. This permits you to define variables that take on the type attributes of the data element in an ABAP program.

Domain :

A domain describes the technical attributes of a field, such as the data type or the number of positions in a field. The domain defines primarily a value range describing the valid data values for the fields referring to this domain.

Different technical fields of the same type can be combined in a domain. Fields referring to the same domain are changed at the same time when a domain is changed. This ensures the consistency of these fields.

Additional info about data element

1.Data type, number of places and possibly the decimal places were entered directly. In this case the field is not filled.

2.A data element is assigned to the field. The field then gets its data type, length and possibly decimal places from this data element. The semantic attributes of the element (field help, representation of the field in input templates with keyword text, column headers for list output of the table contents and editing of the output with parameter IDs) are also copied.

[Former Member]

Hi

Data element stores field characteristics

viz. Type Length, Field Label and Search Help.

Domain Stores the Value range or valid values info

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Regards

Akshay Chonkar

Edited by: Alvaro Tejada Galindo on Apr 14, 2008 3:46 PM

[Former Member]

Hi,

Data Element :The documentation about the field is created for a data element that describes the meaning of the contents of a table field.

Domain: They are the formal definitons .They set data type, length, value range etc.

Regards

Sindhu

[Former Member]

Hi Neetu,

Domain - Specifies the technical attributes of a data

element - its data type, length, possible values, and

appearance on the screen.Each data element has an

underlying domain. A single domain can be the basis for

several data elements. Domains are objects in the ABAP

Dictionary.

Data Element - Describes the business function

of a table field. Its technical attributes are based on a

domain, and its business function is described by its field

labels and documentation.

<REMOVED BY MODERATOR>

Regards,

Naresh

Edited by: Alvaro Tejada Galindo on Apr 14, 2008 3:47 PM

[Former Member]

hi,

Dataelement tells semantic attributes of a field.

it contains: domain/built in type, predifined type

field lable,

Domain tells technical attributes of a field.

in this we can set fixed values, value range,value table and we can set ouput length also.

regards,

chandu.

[Former Member]

data element consist of field label and domain characteristics

data element = field label + domain charecteristics

where as data element consists of filed type and field length.

we can give fixed value range at domain level only

we can create data element with using domain ..and with out using domain also...

process for creating domain with out data element

in SE11

enter the field name

Press predefined Type

Enter Type as CHAR length some 10

you can create by entering different data types.

<REMOVED BY MODERATOR>

regards,

KHASIMSA

Edited by: Alvaro Tejada Galindo on Apr 14, 2008 3:47 PM

[prasanth_kasturi]

data element : it contains the scematic characterstics of field

that is only descriptive characterstics like field labels documentation etc

domain consits of technical characterstics like data type ,length ,

decimals etc

regards

prasanth

[Former Member]

This message was moderated.