What is an IDOC?

Answer

IDOC is simply a data container used to exchange information between any two processes that can understand the syntax and semantics of the data.

In other words ,an IDOC is like a data file with a specified format which is exchanged between 2 systems which know how to interpret that data.

IDOC stands for " Intermediate Document"

When we execute an outbound ALE or EDI Process, an IDOC is created.

In the SAP System, IDOCs are stored in database.Every IDOC has an unique number(within a client).

Key Features

• IDOCs are independent of the sending and receiving systems.(SAP-to-SAP as well as Non-SAP)
• IDOCs are based on EDI standards, ANSI ASC X12 and EDIFACT. In case of any conflict in data size, it adopts one with greater length.
• IDOCs are independent of the direction of data exchange e.g. ORDERS01 : Purchasing module : Inbound and Outbound
• IDOCs can be viewed in a text editor. Data is stored in character format instead of binary format.