Accessing Database tables

In a SAP system, data from a database can be accessed by an ABAP program by using the following type of statements: Open SQL It is a subset of standard SQL, consists of a set of ABAP statements that perform operations on the database tables. It provides a uniform syntax and semantics for all the database systems supported by SAP. Open SQL statements can work with database tables that have been created in the ABAP dictionary. Native SQL - It contains only database manipulation statements. Database tables that are not administered by the ABAP dictionary can be accessed by the Native SQL. A native SQL statement is used within the EXEC SQL and ENDEXEC statements.

Steps to create Database Tables:

Go to ABAP Dictionary. Choose the Database table and type in the table name spfli. Then use the Display button to have a look at the table definition. The following tabs are available.

Attributes- The attribute tab show you to which package the

table is assigned and who did the last changes. Delivery and maintenance This is a very important tab as it show you to which delivery class the table is assigned and if changes to the table are allowed or not.

I.

Display/Maintenance Allowed with Restrictions

II. Display/Maintenance Allowed

III. Display/Maintenance Not Allowed

Fields - name of field, key, data element, data type, length, short description etc.

Entry help/check This tab shows you if any check tables

are used and if there is a search help available. Currency/quantity fields The last tab is important when the table contains currency data as it is necessary to choose a reference currency from a customizing table then.

Commonly Used Open SQL Statements

Select Insert Update Delete Open cursor, fetch, close cursor Reads data from database tables Add lines to tables Changes the contents of a line Delete lines of table Read lines of database tables using the cursor

Database Access
Read database data into internal tables. Internal tables are
tables for holding data during runtime. Change data per row use work areas to hold one row of the table and change data in the work area. Write changes back to database.

Inserting data into tableThe Open SQL statement for inserting data into a database table is: INSERT INTO <target> <lines>. It allows you to insert one or more lines into the database table <target>. You can specify the database table <target> either statically or dynamically.

Specifying a Database Table To specify the database table statically, enter the following for <target>: INSERT INTO <dbtab> <lines>. where <dbtab> is the name of a database table defined in the ABAP Dictionary. To specify the database table dynamically, enter the following for <target>: INSERT INTO (<name>) <lines>. where the field <name> contains the name of a database table defined in the ABAP Dictionary.

Inserting a Single Line

To insert a single line into a database table, use the following: INSERT INTO <target> VALUES <wa>.
You can also insert single lines using the following shortened form of the INSERT statement: INSERT <target> FROM <wa >. Using FROM instead of VALUE allows you to omit the INTO clause.

tables spfli. data wa type spfli. wa-carrid = 'lh'. wa-cityfrom = 'washington'. ... insert into spfli values wa. wa-carrid = 'ua'. wa-cityfrom = 'london'. ... insert spfli from wa.

spfli-carrid = 'lh'. spfli-cityfrom = 'berlin'. ... insert spfli. This program inserts a single line into the database table SPFLI using each of the three possible variants of the INSERT statement.

Updating database rows

The Open SQL statement for changing data in a database table is: UPDATE <target> <lines>. It allows you to change one or more lines in the database table <target>. You can only change lines in an ABAP Dictionary view if it only contains fields from one table, and its maintenance status is defined as Read and change. You may specify the database table <target> either statically or dynamically.

Specifying a Database Table To specify the database table statically, enter the following for <target>: UPDATE <dbtab> <lines>. where <dbtab> is the name of a database table defined in the ABAP Dictionary. To specify the database table dynamically, enter the following for <target>: UPDATE (<name>) <lines>. where the field <name> contains the name of a database table defined in the ABAP Dictionary.

Changing Lines Column by Column

To change certain columns in the database table, use the following: UPDATE <target> SET <set1> <set 2> ... [WHERE <cond>]. The WHERE clause determines the lines that are changed. If you do not specify a WHERE clause, all lines are changed.

The expressions <set i > are three different SET statements that determine the columns to be changed, and how they are to be changed: <si> = <f> The value in column <si> is set to the value <f> for all lines selected. <si> = <si> + <f> The value in column <si> is increased by the value of <f> for all lines selected. <si> = <si> - <f> The value in column <si> is decreased by the value of <f> for all lines selected.

<f> can be a data object or a column of the database table. You can use the attributes of the table using their direct names. If at least one line is changed, the system sets SY-

SUBRC to 0, otherwise to 4. SY-DBCNT contains the

number of lines changed. If you use SET statements, you cannot specify the database table dynamically.

Overwriting Individual Lines From a Work Area To overwrite a single line in a database table with the contents of a work area, use the following: UPDATE <target> FROM <wa> . The contents of the work area <wa> overwrite the line in the database table <dbtab> that has the same primary key. If the database table contains a line with the same primary key as specified in the work area, the operation is completed successfully and SY-SUBRC is set to 0. Otherwise, the line is not updated, and SY-SUBRC is set to 4.

A shortened form of the above statement is: UPDATE <dbtab>. In this case, the contents of the table work area <dbtab> are used to update the database table with the same name. You must declare this table work area using the TABLES statement. In this case, it is not possible to specify the name of the database table dynamically.

Overwriting Several Lines Using an Internal Table To overwrite several lines in a database table with the contents of an internal table, use the following: UPDATE <target> FROM TABLE <itab> .
The contents of the internal table <itab> overwrite the lines in the database table <dbtab> that have the same primary keys. The same rules apply to the line type of <itab> as to the work area <wa> described above.

If the system cannot change a line because no line with the specified key exists, it does not terminate the operation, but continues processing the next line of the internal table. If all lines from the internal table have been processed, SY-SUBRC is set to 0. Otherwise, it is set to 4. If not all lines are used, you can calculate the number of unused lines by subtracting the number of processed lines in SYDBCNT from the total number of lines in the internal table. If the internal table is empty, SY-SUBRC and SY-DBCNT are set to 0. Whenever you want to overwrite more than one line in a database table, it is more efficient to work with an internal table than to change the lines one by one.

Example UPDATE SFLIGHT SET PLANETYPE = 'A310' PRICE = PRICE - '100.00' WHERE CARRID = 'LH' AND CONNID = '0402'. This example overwrites the contents of the PLANETYPE column with A310 and decreases the value of the PRICE column by 100 for the entry in SFLIGHT where CARRID contains LH and CONNID contains 402.

TABLES SPFLI. DATA WA TYPE SPFLI. MOVE 'AA' TO WA-CARRID. MOVE '0064' TO WA-CONNID. MOVE 'WASHINGTON' TO WA-CITYFROM. ... UPDATE SPFLI FROM WA.

MOVE 'LH' TO SPFLI-CARRID. MOVE '0017' TO SPFLI-CONNID. MOVE 'BERLIN' TO SPFLI-CITYFROM. ... UPDATE SPFLI.

In this example, CARRID and CONNID are the primary key fields of table SPFLI. All fields of those lines where the primary key fields are "AA" and "0064", or "LH" and "0017", are replaced by the values in the corresponding fields of the work area WA or the table work area SPFLI.

Reading Data from database tableThe Open SQL statement for reading data from database tables is: SELECT <result> INTO <target> FROM <source> [WHERE <condition>] [GROUP BY <fields>] [HAVING <cond>] [ORDER BY <fields>].

REPORT ZY_PRGM1. tables zzemp320. data: itab type table of zzemp320, wa type zzemp320. wa-empid = 11. wa-name = 'ss'. insert into zzemp320 values wa. write sy-subrc. select * from zzemp320 into table itab. loop at itab into wa. write: / wa-empid,wa-name. endloop.

REPORT ZY_100_FLIGHTS. data it_flights type table of spfli. data wa_flights type spfli. select * from spfli into table it_flights. loop at it_flights into wa_flights. write: / wa_flights-connid,wa_flights-cityfrom, wa_flights-cityto. endloop.

REPORT ZY_100_FLIGHTS. data it_flights type table of spfli. data wa_flights type spfli. select * from spfli into table it_flights. if sy-subrc = 0. loop at it_flights into wa_flights. write: / wa_flights-connid,wa_flights-cityfrom,wa_flightscityto. endloop. else. write: 'sql statement was not successfully'. endif.

Return Codes
All Open SQL statements fill the following two system fields with return

codes:
SY-SUBRC :- After every Open SQL statement, the system field SYSUBRC contains the value 0 if the operation was successful, a value other than 0 if not. SY-DBCNT :- After an open SQL statement, the system field SY-DBCNT contains the number of database lines processed.

Data Types in ABAP Dictionary You can assign a predefined ABAP Dictionary type and a number of characters to an elementary type. The ABAP Dictionary has considerably more predefined types than the ABAP programming language. The number of characters here is not the field length in bytes, but the number of valid characters excluding formatting characters. The data types are different because the predefined data types in the ABAP Dictionary have to be compatible with the external data types of the database tables supported by the SAP Web AS ABAP.

Dictionary type DEC INT1

Meaning Calculation/amount field Single-byte integer

Maximum length n ABAP type 1-31, 1-17 in tables 3 P((n+1)/2) Internal only

INT2
INT4 CURR CUKY QUAN

Two-byte integer
Four-byte integer Currency field Currency key Quantity

5
10 1-17 5 1-17

Internal only
I P((n+1)/2) C(5) P((n+1)/2)

UNIT

Unit

2-3

C(n)

PREC

Accuracy

16

Internal only

FLTP
NUMC CHAR

Floating point number

Numeric text Character

16
1-255 1-255

F(8)
N(n) C(n)

LCHR
STRING RAWSTRING

Long character
String of variable length Byte sequence of variable length

256-max
1-max 1-max

C(n)
STRING XSTRING

DATS

Date

ACCP

Accounting period YYYYMM Time HHMMSS

Byte sequence Long byte sequence

N(6)

TIMS
RAW LRAW

6
1-255 256-max

T
X(n) X(n)

CLNT
LANG DATS

Client
Language Date

C(3)

internal 1, external 2 C(1) 8 D