Avoid Chained Declarations (DATA:, CONSTANTS:, TYPES:)

WarningAnti-Patterns & Bad PracticesQuickFix Ready#EC NO_CHAINED_DECLRemote Enabled

Overview

Avoid Chained Declarations.

ATC Finding Message: Avoid chained declarations; declare each entity individually

Rationale

Chained declarations combine multiple definitions behind a colon and commas, obscuring types and causing noisy version control diffs for single-variable modifications. In modern Clean ABAP, each variable, constant, or type definition should be an independent, fully qualified statement for maximum readability and clean diff tracking.

Non-Compliant

DATA: lv_order_id TYPE string,
      lv_status   TYPE string.

Compliant

DATA lv_order_id TYPE string.
DATA lv_status TYPE string.

Automated QuickFix

This rule provides an automated QuickFix directly in Eclipse ABAP Development Tools (ADT):

1. Position the cursor on the flagged statement.
2. Press Ctrl + 1 (Quick Assist).
3. Select the automated refactoring to apply the clean syntax immediately.

Configuration & Thresholds

This check can be fine-tuned directly in the ATC Check Variant Editor (CHKV) in Eclipse ADT:

Parameter Name	Data Type	Default Value	Description & Guidance
ALLOW_STRUCTURE_CHAINS	Boolean	true	Allow chained declarations exclusively inside BEGIN OF ... END OF structure definitions

Suppression

To suppress findings for this rule, append the pseudo-comment to the statement:

" Standard pseudo-comment:
... "#EC NO_CHAINED_DECL

" SAP CI_ prefix format:
... "#EC CI_NO_CHAINED_DECL

Related Rules

• Avoid Chained Assignments (a = b = c = 1) — #EC NO_CHAINED_ASSIGN
• Prefer Modern Inline Declarations in ABAP 7.40+ — #EC PREF_INLINE
• Prefer FINAL( ) over DATA( ) when the variable is never written again — #EC PREF_FINAL_DATA

Technical Details

• Native ATC Class: ZCL_SKYLINT_NO_CHAINED_DECL
• Implementation File: zcl_skylint_no_chained_decl.clas.abap