Introduction to ABAP: Datatypes, Operators & Editor – Tutorial
ABAP stands for – Advanced Business Application Programming.It is a programming language for developing applications for the SAP R/3 system.
The latest version of ABAP is called ABAP Objects and supports object-oriented programming. SAP will run applications written using ABAP/4, the earlier ABAP version, as well as applications using ABAP Objects.
Without further adieu , lets dive into ABAP.
Note, this tutorial will not go into extensive details on ABAP language constructs (which become very boring to read ) but quickly introduce key concepts to get you started so you can focus your attention on more important topics.
Data Types
Syntax to declare a variable in ABAP –
DATA Variable_Name Type Variable_Type
Example:
DATA employee_number Type I.
The following is a list of Data Types supported by ABAP
Data Type | Initial field length | Valid field length | Initial value | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
Numeric types | ||||
I | 4 | 4 | 0 | Integer (whole number) |
F | 8 | 8 | 0 | Floating point number |
P | 8 | 1 – 16 | 0 | Packed number |
Character types | ||||
C | 1 | 1 – 65535 | ‘ … ‘ | Text field(alphanumeric characters) |
D | 8 | 8 | ‘00000000’ | Date field(Format: YYYYMMDD) |
N | 1 | 1 – 65535 | ‘0 … 0’ | Numeric text field(numeric characters) |
T | 6 | 6 | ‘000000’ | Time field(format: HHMMSS) |
Hexadecimal type | ||||
X | 1 | 1 – 65535 | X’0 … 0′ | Hexadecimal field |
Processing Data – Assigning Values
a=16. move 16 to a. write a to b.
– Arithmetic Operations
compute a = a*100.
Control Statements
Following control statements can be used – – If … EndIf Loop
if [not] exp [ and / or [not] exp ]. ........ [elseif exp. .......] [else. .......] Endif.
– Case statement
Case variable. when value1. ......... when value2. ......... [ when others. .........] Endcase. Do.
-While loop
While <logical expression>. ..... ..... Endwhile.
– Do loop
Do <n> times. ..... ..... Enddo.
Logical Operator
A list of logical operators
- GE or >=
- GT or >
- LE or <=
- LT or <
- EQ or =
- NE or <>
ABAP/4 Editor
Finally , here is where you will spent most of your time as a developer creating / modifying programs. Transaction SE38