Difference between Chaining operator(&&) and Literal Operator(&)

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Recently I talked about the Chaining Operator(&&) and how it simplifies dealing with texts and strings. I wanted to talk about a similar-looking operator with some similar functions to the chaining operator which makes it easy to confuse each other.

A literal operator(&) is used to join two or more literals to produce a single literal. However, there is a hard character length limit of 255.

Example of using a literal operator:

There are more features and limitations to a literal operator. Below are the points on which it's similar/different to a Chaining operator.

    - Similar to the chaining operator, you can use join string templates using &.

REPORT sy-repid.
DATA:
lv_string TYPE string,
lv_string2 TYPE string.
START-OF-SELECTION.
"Using Literal Operator
lv_string = |I want to use| & | literal Operator.| .
WRITE: lv_string. " Output: I want to use literal Operator.
"Using Chaining Operator
lv_string2 = |I want to use| && | Chaining Operator.| .
WRITE:/ lv_string2. " Output: I want to use chaining Operator.
view raw &&v&_ex1.abap hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    - Any trailing blank in text field literals is preserved, unlike chaining operator.

REPORT sy-repid.
DATA:
lv_string TYPE string,
lv_string2 TYPE string.
START-OF-SELECTION.
"Using Literal Operator
lv_string = 'Example using' & ' ' & 'literal Operator.' .
WRITE: lv_string. " Output: Example using literal Operator.
"Using Chaining Operator
lv_string2 = 'Example using' && ' ' && 'Chaining Operator.' .
WRITE:/ lv_string2. " Output: Example usingChaining Operator.
view raw &&v&_ex2.abap hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    - Can span multiline:

REPORT sy-repid.
DATA:
lv_string TYPE string.
START-OF-SELECTION.
lv_String = 'Test '
& 'Multiline '
& 'join.'.
write: lv_String. " Output -> Test Multiline join.
view raw &_simple_ex2.abap hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    - Calculated at compile-time.

Literal Operator compilation error

    - Can not have more than 255 characters(See the error in the above image), if you want to have a longer character,
      use the chaining operator.

    - Can not mix literal types while joining them using the literal operator.


- Can not use variables at operand positions


As you can see, the literal operator has a specific function i.e. to join literals and support multiline declarations while easy to confuse with the chaining operator.
In my opinion, One should refrain from using &(Literal Operator) and use chaining operator or string templates instead.

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