This complete ABAP command reference provides you with key information on the most important ABAP commands with a comprehensive Table of Contents and an exhaustive command reference section, you’ll have all the essential information you need to master ABAP command – at your fingertips!
Versatile and easy to use, this reference provides you with complete syntax for most ABAP command. With instant access to all the ABAP information you need, you’ll achieve peak performance!
The SAP ABAP Command Reference covers:
- Most features of the SAP ABAP language, though release 4.6.
- Complete listings of command, options, operators, functions and system variables.
- Complete tables of SAP system fields and ABAP type conversions.
- Tables of selected SAP transaction codes, database tables and utility programs.
Notice
This edition does NOT include any Object ABAP information. An SAP reviewer pointed out that
some of the information is incomplete (e.g. MODULE), incorrect (e.g. TABLES) or obsolete (e.g.
OCCURS and ON CHANGE OF) for current (release 4.6) commands. That list of deficiencies is
probably not comprehensive. Dennis wrote the original book when the online help files were (to
be generous) were much less complete than today. He believes this book can still be useful to
ABAP programmers, but requests you check HELP when you're doing anything subtle.
If you send Dennis errors or shortcomings
that you notice in the book he will add them to the list of
corrections so everyone can benefit from your discoveries.
Dennis Barrett works for SAP America as a Global Support Manager. For three years he was an implementation consultant for SAP. He has programmed and developed database applications for over eighteen years in various programming languages. He received his Certification as an ABAP Programmer from the SAP Partners Academy in 1996 and has been writing ABAP programs ever since. Dennis graduated in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Texas in Austin, and has attended many courses provided by SAP in ABAP programming and in application use and configuration. He was the founding chairperson of the Small and Medium Enterprise Interest Group and the Central-Texas Chapter of the Americas’ SAP User Group (ASUG).
Here are some illustrations of the material in the book. Three blocks out of the alphabetical section show syntax descriptions and supplementary information. Appendix A lists the system variables used currently in SAP, and Appendix G has several examples of programs.
add-corresponding
Syntax
add-corresponding array1 to array2.
Description
If array1 & array2 are structured work areas such as header lines,
then this command adds like-named fields in array1 and array2.
Example
add array1-key1 to array2-key1.
add array1-key2 to array2-key2.
etc.
See also divide-corresponding, multiply-corresponding, subtract-corresponding
Addition
Description
An "addition" in SAP lingo is an optional parameter which expands the function of its base command.
Example
In the description of append below, the six additions are
·
wa to itab1
·
initial line to itab1
·
lines of itab2 to itab1
·
from ndx1
·
to ndx2
·
sorted by f1.
In this reference manual, optional parameters are indicated by the square braces [ ] in the command description, and alternatives among those options are separated by the "pipe" or vertical bar |. If one of several parameters must be used, the list of parameters is enclosed in curly braces {}, and the parameters in the list are separated by vertical bars. Don’t type the braces or vertical bars in your programs.
ADJACENT DUPLICATES
See DELETE ADJACENT DUPLICATES
Appendix A1 - System Fields
(by use)
SAP systems maintain a runtime array called
sy that contains a lot of data about the system and the program that’s running. You can get the values of these fields (and assign values to some of them) by referring to them as sy-xxxxx where XXXXX is the field name. For example the user’s login name is stored in SY-UNAME. Releases 2.x and 3.x have the same system fields. Releases 4.0 and 4.x each have slightly different lists of system fields. The fields in this list are valid for all releases through 4.6 unless otherwise identified. 78 of the original system fields are obsolete or for internal use only; those are not shown here.
|
Field
Name |
Use |
Description |
Type |
Len |
| |
|
End of list |
|
|
|
CALLD |
ABAP program |
Call mode of the ABAP program |
CHAR |
1 |
|
CPROG |
ABAP program |
Program that called the current external procedure |
CHAR |
40 |
|
DBNAM |
ABAP program |
Logical database linked to the program |
CHAR |
20 |
|
DYNGR |
ABAP program |
Screen group of the current screen |
CHAR |
4 |
|
DYNNR |
ABAP program |
Number of the current screen |
CHAR |
4 |
Appendix G - Examples
G.4 - Pagination
Here’s a brief program and its output that demonstrates some of the page-formatting features in ABAP.
REPORT ZDB_TEST LINE-COUNT 10(3) LINE-SIZE 62.
TOP-OF-PAGE.
WRITE / 'Writing top-of-page'.
BACK.
WRITE 25 'Second top string'.
END-OF-PAGE.
WRITE: 'Writing end-of-page for page', SY-PAGNO NO-GAP.
WRITE / 'eop line 2'.
WRITE / 'eop line 3'.
BACK. "to the top of the list
WRITE 35 'BACK from the EOP block'.
...