Any difference between IS INITIAL and = 0 for integer?

Question

Is there any real difference between "IF integer IS INITIAL" and "IF integer = 0" in ABAP? I mean, the initial value in the I type is 0 instead of NULL, so the result is the same, isn't it?

Answer 1

There is no functional difference.

The only difference is that if you ever change the type of the variable you are testing, the meaning might change. E.g. if you change it to a character based type the initial value will be SPACE.