The followings points distinguishes HR ABAP from ABAP :
1) Use of Infotypes
2) The use of Logical Database
3) Use of Macros and Provide statement
4) Storage and Access of data
5) Authorization checks
There is not much difference between abap and hr abap. The way the data is retrieved from the database is different.
In general ABAP data is stored in Tables, but coming to HR ABAP employee data is sorted through Infotypes. The way we retrieve the data from infotypes is different in hr abap.
In general ABAP we use Logical data base very rare, as in HR ABAP most of the programs use Logical Database to select data from Infotypes by using Get event.
In ABAP we use read statement to read particular record, still in HR ABAP we do use read statement apart from that we have Macros and provide statement.
Macro is pre defined code (like function module) which reads data from internal table (internal infotype) based on dates.
Provide statement is like Select statement but selects data from internal table
Storage and access of data in hr abap is completely different in hr abap compared to ABAP. We use transaction code PA20 and PA30 to maintain data in infotypes.
PA20 is display mode and PA30 is change mode. We can create, change, display, copy, and delete in infotypes with PA30 transaction.
For Infotypes authorizations can be maintained infotype and subtype (field) level as HR data is more sensitive and secrete.
