When developing a report with a selection screen it is very annoying that every time we test it we have to input the test data to the selection screen. We usually end up creating a variant of the test to save us from this hassle. But, every time we run the report we still have to manually call this variant. Here is a simple way to automatically call a variant. This code can be inserted into the INITIALIZATION event during the development of the program:

Classes. They have always existed among people. But there are still few who take them into consideration in ABAP. While being a supporter of classes in society can result in pedantry, the only class struggle in ABAP is that some fight for them to be used more. There are two types of classes: global and local. The global ones are created in the SE24 transaction. Local classes, which by the way I find myself using more and more, are done declaratively in SE38.

O SAP GUI tem boa memória. Vai decorando os valores que lhe vamos metendo nos campos e depois sugere-os quando, mais tarde, voltamos a esses campos. Mas às vezes decora coisas que mais valia esquecer. Como por exemplo quando introduzimos um valor errado e a seguir ele insiste em sugerir-nos esse valor errado. Há uns tempos descobri que este pequeno drama tem solução. Quando, no campo, aparece a combo box com as várias hipóteses, usa as setas do teclado para te posicionares no valor que queres esquecer e depois carrega na tecla DELETE.

I’m going to show you a creative way of filling out an internal table with constants that I learned in a standard program. Imagine you want to create an internal table with the following kinds of financial documents: AB AF CH DG DZ EX F3 F4. The more conventional way would be this: DATA: t_blart TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF blart, wa_blart LIKE LINE OF t_blart. wa_blart = 'AB'. APPEND wa_blart TO t_blart.

As everyone knows, you can select vertical or horizontal blocks of text almost anywhere in SAPGUI, typing CTRL-Y and then dragging the mouse to make the selection. Everyone also knows that this does not work in ABAP editor. But perhaps what some people don’t know is that there is a way of making this kind of selection in ABAP editor: press and hold ALT. Now you can select blocks of text.

Every now and then you get a client who asks a programmer to create a write-protected parameter on the program selection screen. It’s a bit dumb given that the whole idea of parameters is that they are parameterisable. But there you go, it takes all sorts. Clients have so much imagination that SAP should create a cinema module, SAP CI, especially so they can screen all the films they carry around in their heads.

You have in front of you one of those giant IF ELSEIF ELSEIF ELSEIF ELSEIF ELSE ENDIF that runs through hundreds of lines of code. If you double click on the IF or any of the ELSEIF you jump to the ENDIF. If you double click on the ENDIF down below you go to the IF up above. Everybody knows this. It is handy with a small IF ENDIF. However, it’s not much use with the large ones.

Have you ever found yourself programming in one of those ABAP programs that’s as long as the Bible with hundreds and hundreds of lines where you always have to jump from one code area to another? Until a few days ago, in my ignorance I was using PageUp and PageDown to jump between the two locations and I wasted loads of time looking for the exact place in the code that I was interested in.

What is your favourite colour? SELECTION-SCREEN BEGIN OF BLOCK b1. PARAMETERS: p_azul BUTTONGROUP GROUP COR DEFAULT 'X', p_verde BUTTONGROUP GROUP COR, p_roxo BUTTONGROUP GROUP COR. SELECTION-SCREEN END OF BLOCK b1. If you said ‘blue’ you live and can cross the bridge. In any case, the following normally happens in ABAP to discover the colour the user chose: IF p_azul = 'X'. lv_cor = 'AZUL'. ELSE IF p_verde = 'X'. lv_cor = 'VERDE'.

When you need to derive a single record from a database table, you normally use SELECT SINGLE, which is like this in its most basic form, as everyone knows: SELECT SINGLE * FROM KNA1 WHERE KUNNR = '1234567890'. Of course, if you are interested in just a few fields, ideally you select them explicitly to avoid copying unnecessary data from one side to the other: DATA: lv_name1 TYPE name1. SELECT SINGLE name1 INTO lv_name1 FROM KNA1 WHERE KUNNR = '1234567890'.

RICEF is an acronym in SAP world which apparently was not invented by SAP. And so it is an unofficial acronym. Which does not mean it is an illegal or secret acronym given that it has become a term in proper usage in more and more projects. RICEF means Report , Interface , Conversion , Enhancement , Form and, basically, refers to any kind of development that might be needed in a SAP project.

A simple but valuable tip: anywhere in the SAP GUI - including the ABAP Editor - to select a word all you have to do is CTRL-click above it. Cool, no? Unfortunately it doesn’t work on the Mac Java GUI :-( (Thank you Sérgio Fraga for the tip) Greetings from Abapinho.

I’m going to teach you a magic formula for creating a RANGE that is almost as easy as just adding water. Imagine that you want to create a RANGE from a database selection to then use it in another SELECT. Obviously you can do it like this: DATA: lt_kunnr TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF kunnr, lr_kunnr TYPE RANGE OF kunnr, wa_kunnr LIKE LINE OF lr_kunnr. FIELD-SYMBOLS: <kunnr> LIKE LINE OF lt_kunnr. SELECT kunnr INTO TABLE lt_kunnr FROM kna1.

In the beginning there was INTO. Actually, in the beginning it was not even INTO.

Whatever the case, it is necessary to put a program to sleep. And, as with almost everything else, there are several ways to do this, some better than others. The most standard way to do this in ABAP is as follows: WAIT UP TO 10 SECONDS. The advantage of WAIT UP TO N SECONDS is that the process is freed up during these 10 seconds, thereby making it available for those who want it.