ddic on Abapinho

Change selection screen texts without hard coding them

Mon, 24 May 2021 09:00:11 +0000

Even though many ABAP programmers tend to forget this, the less texts you hard code in your program the simpler it will be to translate it.

Here’s a simple but rather obscure way to manipulate selection screen texts while still being able to translate then. This way you can, for example, prefix them with icons.

The curious case of the partially protected structure

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 09:00:10 +0000

The other day I was trying (and failing) to modify a line of a SORTED TABLE.

DDIC structure key

Wed, 02 Nov 2016 09:00:39 +0000

Today when I want to create a SALV I always create a DDIC structure with the data elements already set to show the texts I need. This avoids the need for code to manipulate the field catalog.

APPEND STRUCTURES do more stuff than I thought

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 09:00:06 +0000

During all my ABAPian life I was convinced that APPEND STRUCTURES had one single purpose: to add new extra fields to an existing standard table.

But I recently learned that they let you do two more things after all:

Thou shalt always use a predefined structure with ALV

Mon, 16 Mar 2015 09:00:30 +0000

It is common to find an ALV data structure explicitly defined in the code. If this is done, the field catalog has to be manually constructed. If a predefined structure (from DDIC or declared as a TYPE) is used instead, the field catalog can be automatically built. This approach is always better and results in less code, even if the field catalog needs to be adjusted here and there. https://abapinho.com/en/2011/12/automatizar-catalogo-alv/

Thou shalt consider using SM34 clusters

Thu, 11 Sep 2014 09:00:14 +0000

If a development requires more than one customising table consider grouping their maintenance views under a cluster. This way it will be more intuitive to maintain them. This makes even more sense if one depends on the other since in the cluster definition these relations can be explicitly defined. Example: Como encavalitar tabelas (portuguese)

Thou shalt use a constants table

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:00:45 +0000

Whenever you feel a constant value can change and you can’t add it as a user parameter, store it in ZCONSTS. This table should never be used directly. Instead, a class like ZCL_CONSTS should be created to properly access it, like shown in this article: (portuguese only) Resist the temptation of using T900 or similar tables for this purpose. It’s true that a lot of people do it. But it’s ugly, durty and besides these tables don’t even have an adequate key because they were not designed with this in mind.

SE16N's technical view

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 09:00:43 +0000

Hi. How’ve you been? How’s life? All cool? This tip is so simple that if we don’t talk for a while it will all end too quickly. The sun is shinning. It rained in the morning but now it stopped. Moving on. Every time I see someone still using SE16 I wonder why, since SE16N is so much better and already exists for so long. But this is not the tip.

Adding values to a standard domain

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 09:00:58 +0000

If you think it’s impossible to add values to a standard SAP domain without requesting an activation key, you’re wrong.

Compare a table across two systems

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 09:00:45 +0000

The SCMP transaction compares the content of a table across two systems. It is very useful, especially for parameterization tables. It is very easy to use. It allows for the pre-selection of the registers and fields to compare. It also allows you to only display the differences, which is convenient for tables with lots of data. I don’t think any more explaining is required. Ite et videte. This tip recently appeared in the ex SAPtricks blog and I think it is so useful that I have reposted it here, in case you haven’t already seen it.

SELECT comparing 2 fields of the same table

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 09:00:00 +0000

This tip is simple and quick, but I bet 200.482 Portuguese escudos that few know it.

Create RANGEs in DDIC without getting all wound up

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:26:40 +0000

I am using RANGEs more and more. I use them at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and outside meal times. It’s like soy sauce. A few spoonfuls and everything is instantly tastier.

Lock data in Z-tables without a locking object

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:00:54 +0000

If I needed to create locking entries in a ZCOISO table I had created, up to two days ago I would have gone to SE11 to create a locking object for the ZCOISO table so that I could then use the function module generated by the locking object to lock the data.

But not anymore.

Maintaining table maintenance authorisation groups

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:00:24 +0000

There are some projects in which the authorisations group associated with table maintenance is always &NC;&, that is, Not Classified. It signals that everything there is friendly and nobody is hurting anyone else. But there are other projects where authorisation groups are taken seriously. But this is not synonymous with saying that they are organised. Serious or not, usually it all ends in a big mess, with nobody knowing who is authorised to do what.

This tip may help.

Beautiful table relationships diagrams

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:00:39 +0000

Nice relation diagrams for standard tables. Rui Dias revealed me a site where you can check the relation between any standard table with each other. For instance for T012. And if you try KNA1 it gets even better. Do you like it? I do. Thanks Rui Dias. Greetings from Abapinho.

Dot and comma or comma and dot?

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 09:00:34 +0000

Some numbers have dots, some numbers have commas and some numbers have dots and commas. The problem is that there are also numbers that have commas and dots. The thing is, there are commas that are dots and dots that are commas, depending on where you are from, in other words, depending on user’s configurations. When importing a file with decimal numbers, these numbers’ alpha-numeric fields must be converted into numeric fields.

Client or Customer?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:00:05 +0000

Wherever you use the data element KUNNR, its descriptions is “Client”. And what if we wanted to change this field description from “Client” to “Customer”? “Customer" is so much nicer! Or let’s suppose that the company you work for is trafficking in drugs and tells you that they want “Dealer” rather than “Supplier” to appear in the LIFNR field. Obviously we can label it as we wish on screens and Z reports but what about standard transactions?

Como encavalitar tabelas

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:38:20 +0000

Às vezes temos de criar uma tabela Z. Às vezes temos até de criar várias tabelas Z. Às vezes estas tabelas estão relacionadas de alguma forma. Como quando uma contém dados de cabeçalho e a outra dados de item, por exemplo. Ora se estão relacionadas pode dar jeito que sejam editadas em conjunto. É para isso que servem os Clusters de Visão (view cluster).

As estruturas PRE-a-porter

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:51:37 +0000

Quantas vezes não é necessária uma pequena estrutura para guardar, por exemplo, uma lista que relacione materiais e centros. Mas perder tempo a inventar a roda é sempre de evitar. No reino do MM há uma pequena família de estruturas que uso amiúde: são elas as PRE*, uma série de estruturas que vai desde a PRE01 à PRE50, com uns saltos pelo meio. Embora sejam, na sua maioria, específicas demais para servirem algum propósito, há algumas úteis.