ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) is the proprietary high level programming language developed by SAP which currently serves as the programming language for the SAP Application Server. It was developed in the 1980s and served an important role in the system’s ERP implementation. However, over the years, it gained new features with the introduction of new syntax in 2010.
Interestingly, SAP was founded by five IBM engineers who acquired an early version of Big Blue. Over the years, SAP has developed as the third largest software manufacturer. As part of its growing global stature, it registered as a European company in 2014. SAP Hana is still a major contributor to the growth story. Customers have doubled year on year and have exceeded 6400 in 2015.
SAP ABAP has several interesting features as it is integrated with other features of the SAP Net weaver ABAP application server. Some of them include:
- Logical Database Connections: This enables code to be extracted from a specific database.
- Open SQL: Structured Query Language: With many similarities to Microsoft. NET’s language, SAP ABAP’s open SQL feature is debatable and very interesting. The abstraction of SQL syntax is a part of the ABAP code.
- Security: SAP ABAP is integrated with the SAP NetWeaver’s security infrastructure. Security is vital, it is best to stay secure.
- Internal Tables – These tables hold a vast collection of objects that are retrieved using a distinctive set of keywords or Open SQL. A collection of typed arrays like in the case of CPP or Java is in contrast with the ABAP
- Data Dictionary – A major collection of a universal set of data structure definitions. This is available to all ABAP programs in a system.
- Shared Development System – This is one of the most important aspects of ABAP. Almost all the developers work at the same time on a similar set of development objects. Basically, people work together to work for the SAP ABAP tool in order to ensure the most productive and well organised system.
SAP’s technology stack definitely needs the ABAP interface to be spot on. ABAP development tools are regularly in the top 30 of the Tiobe index. The Tiobe index is used to track the popularity of all programming languages. Some of the applications programs include –
- User Exits and BADI
- Module Pool Programming
- Forms
- Reports
- Interfaces
- Data Conversions
The Ad-hoc queries transaction code is used by the system interface as follows –
- SQ01 – Query Maintenance
- SQ03 – Maintain User Groups
- SQ02 – Display Info Set
The three different kinds of reports that are provided by the Ad-hoc tool are –
- Ranked List: Used for maintenance of Analytical Reports
- Basic List: Simple information and data
- Statistics: Statistical functions
Data Entry
Data transfer from one SAP system to a non-SAP system – this is one of the many interesting facts about SAP ABAP. Manual entries are primarily used for the data transfer. You can transfer data from various systems at different stages of the operation at Stechies. This depends on the type of data being transferred and the volume of the data.