Introduction to the ABAP System

1. Introduction to the ABAP System

2. The Data Browser • Allows us to look at the underlying table contents • Use transaction code SE16

3. The Data Browser • Select the desired table name (T001 is the company code table)

4. The Data Browser • Select the rows

5. The Data Browser • The table data

6. The ABAP Dictionary (Accessing) • Transaction code SE11

7. ABAP Dictionary Elements • Tables • Views • A view created from one or more tables • Data types • Data elements • Structured types

8. ABAP Dictionary Elements (Illustration)

9. ABAP Dictionary Elements (Tables) • A superset of what we usually think of as a table • There are different types of tables • Transparenttables are used to store business data • Pooltables and clustertables generally store applications • (Remember that ABAP programs are stored in the database itself)

10. ABAP Dictionary Elements (Tables - Transparent) • Tables contain • Fields having a field name and a data type • Foreign keys describe relationships between other tables • Technical settings describe how the table is created in the database • Indexes

11. ABAP Dictionary Elements (Views) • In general database terms, it’s a virtual table that is not physically stored • SAP has types of views based on the underlying fundamental database operations • The SAP views are semantic (more later)

12. ABAP Dictionary Elements (Views – Types) • Database – These are views from one or many tables • Projection views apply to only one table and restrict the number of fields to display • Structure views are pretty much obsolete

13. Creating a Table (Steps) • Rules for table names • Creating the table • Creating the fields

14. Creating a Table (Table Names) • 16 case insensitive characters • Customer names (created) tables should begin with the characters Z or Y • Other namespaces (SAP) are letter sequences enclosed by slashes /SAPPRESS/

15. Creating a Table (Maintenance)

16. Creating a Table (Attributes) • Change and language information • Packages group objects (including tables) • They control transport behavior • They organize objects • Objects without a package cannot be transported

17. Creating a Table (Delivery and Maintenance) • Descriptive information • The delivery class drives the transport of data records during install, upgrade, …

18. Creating a Table (Delivery and Maintenance) • The following controls dictionary rights

19. Creating a Table (Fields) • Table fields work a bit differently in SAP • Fields belong to a domain • It’s the domain that defines • The data type • The value range • Domains must be activated before they can be used

20. Field Domains • Fields have a data element, which belongs to a domain

21. Field Domains (Creating) • I prefer to create the domains and then create the fields • DON’T FORGET TO ACTIVATE THEM

22. Creating a Table (Fields)

23. Creating a Table (Fields) • Field name • Key fields uniquely identify a row • Composite keys can have a maximum of 16 key fields • Give a field an initial value • The Data Element field defines the field’s data type • You can use predefined data types or create new ones

24. Creating a Data Element (1) • Select the domain to which the element applies

25. Creating a Field Element (2) • This is where the field titles come from for forms and other places

26. Dictionary Technical Settings (1) • With the desired table active, select GoTo, Technical Settings • These technical settings describe how the system treats the table • Data Class defines the ‘physical’ area of the database where the table is stored • Master data, transactional data, organizational data

27. Dictionary Technical Settings (2) • Size category defines the number of records expected • Buffering whether a record or table is buffered (prefetched into the work area) when accessed

28. Dictionary Technical Settings (Illustration)

29. Entering Data