10/17/23, 2:18 PM SAP Library - ABAP Programming (BC-ABA)

SAP Documentation

Top-Level Binding
Formatting data
This section shows how you can use internal tables and
Introduction to ABAP
extracts, using an example of how to format data for display as
The ABAP a list. The data that you format is usually read from database
Programming tables or from an external file, or you can create your own
Language
generic data in the program. Formatting data for a list usually
ABAP Syntax means sorting it, calculating sums, finding out the number of
Data Types and items, and so on. The example of formatted data shows a list
Data Objects whose output data has been processed like this.
Operations on There are two ways of formatting data - during and after data
Data Objects retrieval.
Controlling the
Program Flow
Formatting Data During Retrieval
Byte and
Character String When you create your own datasets or read data from the
Processing
database using Open SQL statements, the data may already
Field Symbols and be sufficiently formatted when you read it.
Data References

Internal Tables
and Extracts Formatting Data After Retrieval
Internal Tables When using logical databases to access database tables,
when reading data from sequential files, or if the options of
Extracts
Open SQL are not comprehensive enough, the retrieved data
Formatting data often appears in a sequence and structure you need to refine.
Saving Data To refine this data later on, you need to store it in a temporary
Externally dataset. The formatting process is independent of the process
Obsolete of retrieving data. The flow of a program that can be directly
Techniques executed is adapted to this procedure.
ABAP allows you to use internal tables and extracts to save
Executing ABAP
Program Units temporary datasets.

ABAP Objects
Internal Tables
ABAP and Unicode
It makes sense to use internal tables whenever the dataset has
ABAP User the same structure as the underlying data structure, and when
Interfaces
you want to access individual entries individually.
Appendix
https://help.sap.com/doc/saphelp_nw70/7.0.31/en-US/fc/eb35de358411d1829f0000e829fbfe/frameset.htm 1/1