Active and Inactive Dictionary Objects

During development, you sometimes need to change an (active) object that is already used by the system. Such changes are supported in the ABAP Dictionary by separating the active and inactive versions.

The basic difference between the active and inactive version is as follows:

• Active version
  The active version of an ABAP Dictionary object is the version that the components of the runtime environment (for example, ABAP processor, database interface) access. This version is not initially changed.
• Inactive version
  ​When you change an active object, the system creates an inactive version that can be saved without checking. It has no effect on the runtime system.

Runtime Objects

When an object in ABAP Dictionary is activated, a runtime object is usually created and an activation log that can be consulted if errors occur. The runtime object can be displayed and checked in the ABAP Dictionary by choosing Utilities → Runtime Object.

The information about a structure (or table) is distributed in the ABAP Dictionary in domains, data elements, and the structure definition. The runtime object combines this information into a structure in a form that is optimized for access from ABAP programs. The runtime object is generated automatically when you activate a structure.

The runtime objects of the structures are buffered so that the ABAP runtime system can quickly access this information.

The runtime objects contain the following information:

• Information about the overall structure, for example, number of fields.
• Information about individual structure fields, such as field name, position of the field in the structure, data type, length, number of decimal places, reference field, reference table, check table, conversion routine, and so on.
• Information required by the database interface to access the table data, such as client dependence, buffering, key fields, and so on.