DEFINE

Basic form

DEFINE macro.

Effect

Defines a program component (macro) under the name macro . It must consist only of ABAP/4 statements and is expanded at compilation time.

A macro should always be concluded with the END-OF-DEFINITION statement.

In the definition, you can use &n to reference positional parameters (n = 0 .. 9). When the macro is called, &n is replaced by the n-th actual parameter.

Example

Define a macro called "++" for use in the program.

DEFINE ++.
ADD 1 TO &1.
END-OF-DEFINITION.

DATA: NUMBER TYPE I VALUE 1.
...
++ NUMBER.

Notes

• In general, it is better to use subroutines (FORM, FUNCTION ) rather than macros because subroutines - unlike macros - are supported by all the ABAP/4 Development Workbench tools (including debugging, runtime analysis, runtime error handling, ...).

• You cannot nest macro definitions.