Type Mapping
The DCOM Connector includes a Data Coverter, which automatically converts ABAP data types to DCOM data types and vice versa.
Basic Data Types
The table below shows how the required basic ABAP data types are mapped into the respective COM data types. For RFC communication, ABAP data types are converted to the respective RFC data types.
ABAP Type |
RFC Type |
Automation Type |
| C (String) | RFC_CHAR | BSTR |
| I (Integer) | RFC_INT | LONG |
| F (Float) | RFC_FLOAT | DOUBLE |
| D (Date) | RFC_DATE | DATE |
| T (Time) | RFC_TIME | DATE |
| P (BCD Packed, Currency, Decimal, Quantity) | RFC_BCD | BSTR |
| N (Numc) | RFC_NUM | LONG or BSTR |
| X (Binary and Raw) | RFC_CHAR | BSTR |
Note
The data types D and T are used in ABAP for specifying date and time; they are mapped into the RFC types RFC_DATE and RFC_TIME. Visual Basic, however, only has the Automation data type DATE, which is used to present the scalar type for date as well as time. The correct mapping in this case must be done by the VB programmer. For more information on how to convert types, see Formatting Dates and Times
.Note
All DCOM proxies generated with Object Builder use only Automation data types.
Structures and Tables
The Data Converter converts ABAP structures or tables into ADO Recordsets (and
vice versa).
Conversion of individual fields in structures or tables takes place according to the
conversion rules of the individual data types.
By default, ADO Recordsets are supported in development environments of VC++, VB, or of
scripting languages.
Note:
The RFC protocoll only supports encapsulated structures or tables. This implies that you cannot process tables that contain other tables.