{"id":7224,"date":"2025-08-01T01:36:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/?question=pass-by-value-vs-pass-by-reference-in-sap-abap"},"modified":"2025-08-01T01:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:07:48","slug":"pass-by-value-vs-pass-by-reference-in-sap-abap","status":"publish","type":"question","link":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/?question=pass-by-value-vs-pass-by-reference-in-sap-abap","title":{"rendered":"Pass by Value VS Pass by Reference in SAP ABAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

In SAP ABAP, pass by value and pass by reference are two methods of passing data to methods, function modules, or forms. They determine how the data is handed over and whether changes to the data affect the original variable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Aspect<\/th>\nPass by Value<\/th>\nPass by Reference<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Memory<\/td>\nMore (copies data)<\/td>\nLess (passes reference)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Speed<\/td>\nSlower<\/td>\nFaster<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original Changed?<\/td>\n\u00a0No<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Syntax<\/td>\nVALUE(...)<\/code><\/td>\nDefault or REFERENCE(...)<\/code><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n
REPORT\u00a0<\/span>zrep_lclclass.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDATA<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>lv_val\u00a0TYPE\u00a0<\/span>i\u00a0<\/span>VALUE\u00a0<\/span>5<\/span>,<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0lv_ref\u00a0TYPE\u00a0<\/span>i\u00a0<\/span>VALUE\u00a0<\/span>5<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nCLASS\u00a0<\/span>zcl_pass_test\u00a0DEFINITION<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0PUBLIC\u00a0<\/span>SECTION<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0METHODS<\/span>:<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pass_by_value\u00a0IMPORTING\u00a0<\/span>value<\/span>(<\/span>iv_num)\u00a0<\/span>TYPE\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>,<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pass_by_ref\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0CHANGING\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>cv_num\u00a0TYPE\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>.<\/span>\r\nENDCLASS<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0CLASS\u00a0<\/span>zcl_pass_test\u00a0IMPLEMENTATION<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0METHOD\u00a0<\/span>pass_by_value.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0iv_num\u00a0=\u00a0<\/span>iv_num\u00a0+\u00a010<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'Inside\u00a0pass_by_value:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>iv_num.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0ENDMETHOD<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0METHOD\u00a0<\/span>pass_by_ref.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cv_num\u00a0=\u00a0<\/span>cv_num\u00a0+\u00a010<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'Inside\u00a0pass_by_ref:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>cv_num.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0ENDMETHOD<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nENDCLASS<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSTART-OF-SELECTION<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0DATA<\/span>(<\/span>lo_pass_test)\u00a0<\/span>=\u00a0<\/span>NEW\u00a0<\/span>zcl_pass_test(\u00a0<\/span>)<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'Before\u00a0pass_by_value:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>lv_val.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0lo_pass_test-><\/span>pass_by_value(\u00a0<\/span>iv_num\u00a0=\u00a0<\/span>lv_val\u00a0)<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'After\u00a0pass_by_value:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>lv_val.\u00a0<\/span>\"\u00a0Unchanged<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0SKIP<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'Before\u00a0pass_by_ref:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>lv_ref.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0lo_pass_test-><\/span>pass_by_ref(\u00a0<\/span>CHANGING\u00a0<\/span>cv_num\u00a0=\u00a0<\/span>lv_ref\u00a0)<\/span>.<\/span>\r\n\u00a0\u00a0WRITE<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\/\u00a0'After\u00a0pass_by_ref:\u00a0<\/span>',\u00a0<\/span>lv_ref.\u00a0<\/span>\"\u00a0Changed<\/span><\/span> <\/code><\/pre>\n
Output:<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","question-category":[158],"question_tags":[178,216,215,214,177],"class_list":["post-7224","question","type-question","status-publish","hentry","question-category-abap","question_tags-abap","question_tags-abap-programming","question_tags-pass-by-reference","question_tags-pass-by-value","question_tags-sap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/question\/7224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/question"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/question"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"question-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fquestion-category&post=7224"},{"taxonomy":"question_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sapewmhelp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fquestion_tags&post=7224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}