To check if a program is running in background usually one takes a peek at SY-BATCH. SY-BINPT can also be used to check if the background program is a BDC session. You usually check one of these. There is a similar but not exactly equal question, though. How do you ask if the GUI is available? Most times both questions will have the same answer. But not always. It’s like saying the Sun can be seen during the day while the Moon can be seen during the night. If the sky is cloudy you won’t be seeing them.

Usually SAP systems have a predefined time limit for running a program interactively. If the program takes longer to run than that you’ll get a runtime execution error. A dump.

When we learn ABAP, we are taught a series of rules on how to name variables. Not everyone uses the same rules but, still, some strict rules are shared between many people: Local variables must start with L: L_BUKRS; Global variables must start with G: G_MODE; Internal tables must have T_: LT_MARA; Structures must have S_: LS_MARA; Object references must have R_: R_CUSTOMER; input parameters must start with I, output with O, changing with C and returning with R. And the most stupid of all, field-symbols must start with FS_: <FS_MARA>. In the early XXI century those rules made some sense (except for the field-symbols on, which was, and still is, as stupid as writing ‘pencil’ in all our pencils). Today they don’t make much sense anymore. Let me explain.

Nuno Morais has developed another very useful tool to help simplify mass translations of most SAP objects. The toold is not for automatic translation between two languages. Instead, it has the following features: Export an Excel file with texts Import an Excel file with texts Copy texts from one language into one or more languages Create a transport order with the changed texts

Nuno Morais developed a very useful tool which can compare objects between systems and works much better than transaction SREPO. Abapinho will be its official repository. Code in GitHub. Soon, an instruction manual. Until then, go on and try it. If you like it or have any suggestion please leave a comment here. Thank you Nuno for having developed this and for sharing it with the world in Abapinho. Greetings from Abapinho.

You may not even know how to program but if you’re able to type fast and know enough keyboard shortcuts everyone will think you’re an expert. In the ABAP editor write the following word: subdermatoglyphic Now try the following shortcuts: CTRL+U: SUBDERMATOGLYPHIC BIG LETTERS! UPPER CASE! CTRL+L: subdermatoglyphic small letters! lower case! CTRL+J: Subdermatoglyphic The First Letter Of Each Word In Upper case! CTRL+K: sUBDERMATOGLYPHIC tHe BiG aRe NoW sMaLl AnD tHe SmAlL ArE nOw BiG!

A long time ago transaction SE17 was used to look at database tables content. They quickly felt ashamed and decided to improve it, creating SE16. When ALV was invented, SE16N was released (although until today many people still use SE16, go figure!). Today I present you SE16H.

If you want to serialize a set of strings stored in an internal table there are two ways to do it. One is dull, the other one is full of style.

What I’m about to show you is not exactly new. It has even been used in Abapinho before. But since there is still a lot of people out there using LOOP to change a single field of an internal table, I thought it would be worth talking about it. Say you have an internal table with one million and two hundred thousand entries and want to change the field ICON so that it has ‘@FM@‘ in all lines.

Pré 7.4: DATA l_idade type i. READ TABLE lt_folk INTO ls_folk WITH KEY name = l_name. l_age = ls_folk-age. Pós 7.4: data(l_age) = lt_folk[ name = l_name ]-age ) Thanks Sérgio Fraga for the tip. Greeetings from Abapinho.

Abapinho will slowly start posting tips specific to AS ABAP 7.4. Slowly because there are still only a few people with access to this version. But there are so many new things to tell that I feel tempted to start posting all of them. ABAP was a flabby middle aged guy with a beer belly. It underwent major plastic surgery and now looks like a lean 20 year old kid who can party until 9am, drink 7 gin tonics and then, before going to bed, do 100 burpees just to sleep better.

You’re in the middle of a debug and want it to stop at a specific message. What to do?

If you are one of those persons who still uses SE16, this article is not for you. If you keep reading, you might find yet another reason to finally start using SE16N (as if all others were not enough already). Imagine that you want to select all materials whose name contains “PREGO” and whose type is “FERRAGENS”, and all materials whose name contains “GUARDANAPO” and whose type is “COMIDA”. In other words, “PREGO_NO_PAO” or “GUARDANAPO_PAPEL” won’t be part of the result set. What you want is this: (MATNR = “PREGO%” AND MTART = “FERR” ) OR (MATNR = “GUARDANAPO%” AND MAKT = “COMI” ) As you know, using SE16N in a regular way (which doesn’t use what I’m about to show you) you would need to execute it twice and manually compare data, because the selection screen does not allow you to make multiple OR selections. Or does it?

DELETE CLEAR REFRESH FREE These are different ways of deleting all data from an internal table. They look the same. But they aren’t.

Get ready because you’ll soon be running into a lot of surprises. ABAP is learning new tricks. Look at this one: CONSTANTS: lc_menina TYPE STRING VALUE ‘GIRL', lc_menino TYPE STRING VALUE ‘BOY’, lc_senhor TYPE STRING VALUE ’GENTLEMAN’, lc_senhora TYPE STRING VALUE ‘LADY’. SELECT nome, CASE WHEN sexo_id = ‘M' AND idade < 18 THEN @lc_menino WHEN sexo_id = ‘F’ AND idade < 18 THEN @lc_menina WHEN sexo_id = ‘M' AND idade >=18 THEN @lc_senhor WHEN sexo_id = ‘F’ AND idade >=18 THEN @lc_senhora END AS titulo FROM zpessoa WHERE pessoa_id = @pessoa_id INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF @lt_pessoas.