Introduction to the ABAP System

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

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

Slide 4 The Data Browser Select the rows

Slide 5 The Data Browser The table data

Slide 6 The ABAP Dictionary (Accessing) Transaction code SE11

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

Slide 8 ABAP Dictionary Elements (Illustration)

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

Slide 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

Slide 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)

Slide 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

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

Slide 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/

Slide 15 Creating a Table (Maintenance)

Slide 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

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

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

Slide 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

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

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

Slide 22 Creating a Table (Fields)

Slide 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

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

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

Slide 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

Slide 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

Slide 28 Dictionary Technical Settings (Illustration)

Slide 29 Entering Data