ABAP/4 Development Code Efficiency Guidelines

ABAP/4 (Advanced Business Application Programming 4GL) language is an "event-

driven", "top-down", well-structured and powerful programming language. The ABAP/4
processor controls the execution of an event. Because the ABAP/4 language incorporates
many "event" keywords and these keywords need not be in any specific order in the code,
it is wise to implement in-house ABAP/4 coding standards.

SAP-recommended customer-specific ABAP/4 development guidelines can be found in

the SAP-documentation.

This page contains some general guidelines for efficient ABAP/4 Program Development
that should be considered to improve the systems performance on the following areas:-

Physical I/O - data must be read from and written into I/O devices. This can be a potential
bottle neck. A well configured system always runs 'I/O-bound' - the performance of the
I/O dictates the overall performance.

Memory consumption of the database resources eg. buffers, etc.

CPU consumption on the database and application servers

Network communication - not critical for little data volumes, becomes a bottle neck when
large volumes are transferred.

Policies and procedures can also be put into place so that every SAP-customer
development object is thoroughly reviewed (quality – program correctness as well as
code-efficiency) prior to promoting the object to the SAP-production system.
Information on the SAP R/3 ABAP/4 Development Workbench programming tools and
its features can be found on the SAP Public Web-Server.

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CLASSIC GOOD 4GL PROGRAMMING CODE-PRACTICES GUIDELINES

Avoid dead-code

Remove unnecessary code and redundant processing

Spend time documenting and adopt good change control practices

Spend adequate time anayzing business requirements, process flows, data-structures and
data-model
Quality assurance is key: plan and execute a good test plan and testing methodology

Experience counts

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SELECT * FROM <TABLE>

CHECK: <CONDITION>
ENDSELECT

vs.

SELECT * FROM <TABLE>

WHERE <CONDITION>
ENDSELECT

In order to keep the amount of data which is relevant to the query the hit set small, avoid
using SELECT+CHECK statements wherever possible. As a general rule of thumb,
always specify all known conditions in the WHERE clause (if possible). If there is no
WHERE clause the DBMS has no chance to make optimizations. Always specify your
conditions in the Where-clause instead of checking them yourself with check-statements.
The database system can also potentially make use a database index (if possible) for
greater efficiency resulting in less load on the database server and considerably less load
on the network traffic as well.

Also, it is important to use EQ (=) in the WHERE clause wherever possible, and analyze
the SQL-statement for the optimum path the database optimizer will utilize via SQL-trace
when necessary.

Also, ensure careful usage of "OR", "NOT" and value range tables (INTTAB) that are
used inappropriately in Open SQL statements.

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SELECT *

vs.

SELECT SINGLE *

If you are interested in exactly one row of a database table or view, use the SELECT
SINGLE statement instead of a SELECT * statement. SELECT SINGLE requires one
communication with the database system whereas SELECT * requires two.
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SELECT * FROM <TABLE> INTO <INT-TAB>

APPEND <INT-TAB>
ENDSELECT

vs.

SELECT * FROM <TABLE> INTO TABLE <INT-TAB>

It is usually faster to use the INTO TABLE version of a SELECT statement than to use
APPEND statements

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SELECT ... WHERE + CHECK

vs.

SELECT using aggregate function

If you want to find the maximum, minimum, sum and average value or the count of a
database column, use a select list with aggregate functions instead of computing the
aggregates within the program. The RDBMS is responsible for aggregated computations
instead of transferring large amount of data to the application. Overall Network,
Application-server and Database load is also considerably less.

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SELECT INTO TABLE <INT-TAB> + LOOP AT T

…………
SELECT * FROM <TABLE> INTO TABLE <INT-TAB>.
LOOP AT <INT-TAB>.
ENDLOOP.

vs.

SELECT * FROM <TABLE>

……….
ENDSELECT

If you process your data only once, use a SELECT-ENDSELECT loop instead of
collecting data in an internal table with SELECT ... INTO TABLE. Internal table
handling takes up much more space

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Nested SELECT statements:

SELECT * FROM <TABLE-A>
SELECT * FROM <TABLE-B>
……..
ENDSELECT.
ENDSELECT

vs.

Select with view

SELECT * FROM <VIEW>
ENDSELECT

To process a join, use a view wherever possible instead of nested SELECT statements.
Using nested selects is a technique with low performance. The inner select statement is
executed several times which might be an overhead. In addition, fewer data must be
transferred if another technique would be used eg. join implemented as a view in ABAP/4
Repository.

· SELECT ... FORM ALL ENTRIES

· Explicit cursor handling (for more information, goto Transaction SE30 – Tips & Tricks)

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Nested select:
SELECT * FROM pers WHERE condition.
SELECT * FROM persproj WHERE person = pers-persnr.
... process ...
ENDSELECT.
ENDSELECT.

vs.

SELECT persnr FROM pers INTO TABLE ipers WHERE cond. ……….
SELECT * FROM persproj FOR ALL ENTRIES IN ipers
WHERE person = ipers-persnr
………... process .……………
ENDSELECT.

In the lower version the new Open SQL statement FOR ALL ENTRIES is used. Prior to
the call, all interesting records from 'pers' are read into an internal table. The second
SELECT statement results in a call looking like this (ipers containing: P01, P02, P03):
(SELECT * FROM persproj WHERE person = 'P01')
UNION
(SELECT * FROM persproj WHERE person = 'P02')
UNION
(SELECT * FROM persproj WHERE person = 'P03')

In case of large statements, the R/3's database interface divides the statement into several
parts and recombines the resulting set to one. The advantage here is that the number of
transfers is minimized and there is minimal restrictions due to the statement size (compare
with range tables).

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SELECT * FROM <TABLE>

vs.

SELECT <column(s)> FROM <TABLE>

Use a select list or a view instead of SELECT *, if you are only interested in specific
columns of the table. If only certain fields are needed then only those fields should be read
from the database. Similarly, the number of columns can also be restricted by using a
view defined in ABAP/4 Dictionary. Overall database and network load is considerably
less.

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SELECT without table buffering support

vs.

SELECT with table buffering support

For all frequently used, read-only(few updates) tables, do attempt to use SAP-buffering
for eimproved performance response times. This would reduce the overall Database
activity and Network traffic.

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Single-line inserts
LOOP AT <INT-TAB>
INSERT INTO <TABLE> VALUES <INT-TAB>
ENDLOOP

vs.

Array inserts

Whenever possible, use array operations instead of single-row operations to modify the
database tables.

Frequent communication between the application program and database system produces
considerable overhead.

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Single-line updates
SELECT * FROM <TABLE>
<COLUMN-UPDATE STATEMENT>
UPDATE <TABLE>
ENDSELECT

vs.

Column updates
UPDATE <TABLE> SET <COLUMN-UPDATE STATEMENT>

Wherever possible, use column updates instead of single row updates to update your
database tables

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DO....ENDDO loop with Field-Symbol

vs.

Using CA operator

Use the special operators CO, CA, CS instead of programming the operations yourself
If ABAP/4 statements are executed per character on long strings, CPU consumprion can
rise substantially

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Use of a CONCATENATE function module

vs.

Use of a CONCATENATE statement

Some function modules for string manipulation have become obsolete, and should be
replaced by ABAP statements or functions

STRING_CONCATENATE... ---> CONCATENATE

STRING_SPLIT... ---> SPLIT
STRING_LENGTH... ---> strlen()
STRING_CENTER... ---> WRITE..TO. ..CENTERED
STRING_MOVE_RIGHT ---> WRITE...TO...RIGHT-JUSTIFIED

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Moving with offset

vs.

Use of the CONCATENATE statement

Use the CONCATENATE statement instead of programming a string concatenation of

your own

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Use of SEARCH and MOVE with offset

vs.

Use of SPLIT statement

Use the SPLIT statement instead of programming a string split yourself

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Shifting by SY-FDPOS places

vs

Using SHIFT...LEFT DELETING LEADING...

If you want ot delete the leading spaces in a string use the ABAP/4 statements
SHIFT...LEFT DELETING LEADING... Other constructions (with CN and SHIFT... BY
SY-FDPOS PLACES, with CONDENSE if possible, with CN and ASSIGN CLA+SY-
FDPOS(LEN) ...) are not as fast

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Get a check-sum with field length

vs

Get a check-sum with strlen ()

Use the strlen () function to restrict the DO loop to the relevant part of the field, eg. when
determinating a check-sum

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