There are standard functions that trigger messages where they shouldn’t. And they shouldn’t because we want to use these functions in non-interactive programs and then, instead of returning the error, an error message is triggered and ruins the whole process.

However, being aware of this problem, SAP has provided a quite elegant (but not well documented) way of solving this problem.

Imagine that you have the following function module:

FUNCTION zzt_message.
*"----------------------------------------------------------------------
*"*"Local Interface:
*"  EXCEPTIONS
*"      HELLO
*"      GOODBYE
*"----------------------------------------------------------------------

  MESSAGE e002(00).

ENDFUNCTION.

Now, use your imagination and consider the possibility of having this program:

REPORT zverso_nao.

CALL FUNCTION 'ZZT_MESSAGE'
  EXCEPTIONS
    hello         = 1
    goodbye       = 2
    OTHERS        = 3.
WRITE 'Por muito tempo achei que a ausência é falta'.

What happens is that instead of returning a poem of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, the program will throw an error and stop.

But with a simple trick you can give poetry a go:

REPORT zverso_sim.

CALL FUNCTION 'ZZT_MESSAGE'
  EXCEPTIONS
    hello         = 1
    goodbye       = 2
    ERROR_MESSAGE = 3
    OTHERS        = 4.
WRITE 'For a long time I have thought that the absence is a fault'.

Precisely. Simply add the virtual exception ERROR_MESSAGE before OTHERS and the message will not pop up. SY-SUBRC assumes 3 to warn that there was an error message and the program can bring some beauty to the world.

Thank you, Miguel Jorge for the hint.

Best greetings from Abapinho.