What is SAP ABAP?

ABAP, whose full form is Advanced Business Application Programming, is a high-level programming language. ABAP is developed by SAP SE, a German multinational software corporation and a global leader in enterprise software solutions for business operations management and customer relationship management.

Key facts about ABAP

• ABAP in SAP is designed to be easily readable and writable compared to other low-level languages, such as C and Assembly.

It supports both procedural and object-oriented programming.

• ABAP is the cornerstone of the SAP application development environment, playing a crucial role in extending, customizing, and building business applications within the SAP ecosystem, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Suite, SAP NetWeaver, and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).

Organizations using SAP software, such as SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA, can utilize ABAP to:

• Create new applications tailored to specific business operations,
• Customize existing applications, including SAP functions, reports, screens, and processes, or,
• Implement interfaces to establish connections between SAP systems and external systems for data exchange.

The NetWeaver Application Server serves as the foundation for most SAP applications, offering a reliable runtime environment for SAP and other applications crafted in ABAP. Historically, ABAP was the exclusive language used for SAP applications, making it a core part of the ecosystem.

Java also gained visibility and prominence for integration scenarios and web-based applications. Many modern SAP systems use both ABAP and Java components.

C++ plays a key role in building the ABAP kernel, which is essential for running ABAP code smoothly. It helps keep the operations within the ABAP environment fast and efficient, which is especially important for large enterprise applications. While developers typically work with the ABAP language itself, C++ supports the underlying system. Keep in mind, ABAP is SAP’s proprietary language, so you’ll need an SAP license if you want to develop or run ABAP code.

When to Use ABAP

ABAP is a popular choice for developing programs within a company, especially when there’s a need for close integration with existing SAP systems, such as SAP ERP, S/4HANA, and BW/4HANA. It provides direct access to data models and business logic, making it easier to customize, modify, or enhance SAP’s standard features according to business needs.

Additionally, ABAP is highly effective when handling large volumes of data, transforming data, or managing transactional processes, particularly with the use of ABAP push-down techniques that leverage SAP HANA’s in-memory capabilities.

Moreover, ABAP can be used to tailor SAP solutions, especially those built in non-ABAP languages such as SAP Ariba, Business One, SuccessFactors, and SAP Concur, to integrate smoothly with core SAP systems.

Special Characteristics of ABAP

ABAP has several characteristics, making it a primary choice for business application development:

• ABAP is designed and optimized for developing business applications that require large-scale data processing and complex logic.
• ABAP Workbench is a set of tools that serves as an integrated development environment (IDE) for creating, modifying, and debugging ABAP applications.
• ABAP provides a centralized repository for storing application components and code, facilitating management and versioning.
• ABAP provides dynamic storage in memory mechanisms for data management during execution, such as internal tables, structures, and work areas.
• ABAP provides a standard transport request mechanism for storing, managing, and transporting development objects between different SAP environments, including Dev, QA, and Production.
• ABAP supports the creation of PDF and XML documents using SAPscript and SmartForms.
• ABAP supports applications designed to be displayed in multiple languages to end users, as per their preferred language, and requires the availability of a language translation system.

Why Learn ABAP?

ABAP is an essential choice for mission-critical business processes and a valuable skill for SAP professionals. It has been the technological backbone for decades, demonstrating reliability across many SAP solutions. One notable example is SAP Business Suite, the traditional on-premises ERP system, which many organizations still rely on today.

ABAP applications are:

• Designed to manage large volumes of data,
• Manage complex business processes,
• Provide scalability to meet the demands of millions of transactions daily in the largest enterprises and
• Provide tools and frameworks for extensibility without modifying the core system.

The modern ABAP platform combines the SAP HANA database at the backend, the ABAP server for stable and secure execution, and its integration with SAP Fiori UI, providing a digital user experience. This integration offers a comprehensive application development and runtime solution, enabling developers to build business applications within a single, unified development environment.

SAP’s focus is to continuously extend ABAP to support new business scenarios and innovative application development by incorporating cloud computing, in-memory processing, and intelligent technologies, such as new models like ABAP RESTful application programming. This makes the system more efficient and aligned with modern software engineering principles.

According to SAP’s statistics, ABAP deployments are running on more than 100,000 SAP customer systems globally, demonstrating widespread adoption and guaranteeing a need for ABAP developers to support, maintain, and enhance enterprise-ready business processes and applications. Due to its integrated and self-compiling nature, ABAP streamlines the development lifecycle, reduces the total cost of development, and reduces potential errors.

Developers need to learn ABAP as a career path to understand how these critical SAP systems function and how they can be customized for specific business needs. These statistics further demonstrate that:

• Over 5000 SAP Business Suite systems are showing the continued relevance of ABAP.
• More than 64,000 standalone systems indicate the large number of independent ABAP installations.
• About 4.5 million ABAP developers are registered, forming a sizable active community.
• Over 1650 SAP S/4HANA projects highlight the reach of ABAP in the latest S/4HANA implementations.

History of ABAP

Since its inception, ABAP has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a simple reporting language to a powerful, enterprise-grade application development platform.

Below is a brief timeline of ABAP evolution:

• 1980s: ABAP was initially introduced in 1983 as a procedural language within the SAP R/2 system, a mainframe-based ERP system, for reporting purposes. It was designed for use by business professionals, not just software developers.
• Evolution: ABAP evolved as SAP evolved from R/2 to R/3, expanding beyond a simple reporting language to become a full-fledged enterprise-level software development language. It was used throughout the development of SAP R/3 in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• 1992: SAP R/3 was released in 1992 as a client/server architecture model, as a result of moving away from mainframe-based architecture, which allowed more distributed and flexible R/3 deployments and ABAP being a core language for application development and customization.
• 1999: SAP introduced an object-oriented extension to ABAP, also known as ABAP objects, with the growing need for object-oriented programming. This marked the foundation for more modular, reusable, and maintainable code in ABAP.
• 2000: With the release of SAP R/3 Enterprise Edition 4.6 C, SAP introduced more formal integration of object-oriented programming principles into ABAP, which enabled developers to create objects, classes, and use concepts such as inheritance and polymorphism in ABAP, bringing it closer to modern programming practices.
• 2010s: SAP started early development and release of SAP’s new development platform, NetWeaver, in mid to late 2000, and continued to enhance ABAP features. But it was NetWeaver releases 7.4 and 7.5 which introduced support of both ABAP and Java, including new features such as new syntax, expressions and more concise and readable code, enhanced Open SQL syntax, added ABAP managed database procedures (AMDP) for improved performance and Core Data Services (CDS Views) as robust data modeling infrastructure. NetWeaver became the foundation for the SAP S/4HANA platform, shifting processing logic from the application layer to the in-memory database layer with new programming opportunities, including real-time data processing, enhanced performance, and advanced analytics.
• Recent Era: The most recent era has introduced ABAP in the cloud platform, especially with SAP BTP, which provides an experience for cloud-native ABAP development. Emergence of new programming models such as ABAP role in HANA-optimized OData services for SAP Fiori applications supporting analytics, transactions, and search scenarios, and ABAP RESTful Application Programming model for developing cloud-ready Fiori applications in S/4HANA. Modern ABAP development involves a two-track method approach, where developers can work with both classic ABAP and modern AMDP simultaneously to build applications for optimized performance based on the HANA in-memory database.

New vs. Old ABAP

Developers often refer to programming techniques as old or classic, or new or modern, depending on the era in which these techniques were used.

Old ABAP	New ABAP
ABAP was characterized as a procedural programming language from the 1980s to 2000, due to its less emphasis on object-oriented programming and heavy use of global data, with a focus on reports, forms, and modules.	The modern era is when OOP was formally integrated into ABAP and further evolved with the releases of 4.6C and 7.x, such as ABAP 7.4 and 7.5.
The old ABAP programming language style is still relevant for older SAP systems, but is less maintainable and efficient than modern ABAP.	4.6C and 7.x, such as ABAP 7.4 and 7.5, introduced features like modern syntax, inline declarations, expressions, code pushdown to HANA, and the use of new development techniques, including RAP, AMDP, Open SQL enhancements, and CDS View models.

Introduction of SAP HANA has also been a significant factor for the term “new/modern” in ABAP, because it directly impacts the performance of code by allowing in-memory processing, which in return improves scalability by reducing data transfer between database and application, and enhanced integration as a unified platform for transactional and analytical workloads.

SAP NetWeaver and ABAP

SAP NetWeaver is an application server for many SAP solutions with ABAP deeply integrated. It handles underlying OS and database interactions.

NetWeaver provides an abstraction layer between business applications, operating systems, and databases, which provides platform independence for SAP applications.

NetWeaver supports various operating systems, including UNIX variants such as AIX, Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, Windows, IBM iSeries i5/OS, and IBM System zSeries z/OS.

NetWeaver supports various databases, including SAP HANA in-memory database, SAP ASE (formerly Sybase), Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MaxDB, Informix, and IBM DB2.

ABAP Architecture and Environment

The ABAP architecture & environment are designed to handle complex enterprise-level business processes, tightly integrated with the NetWeaver Application Server, which provides a set of tools and services for developers. Understanding the architecture and environment of ABAP is essential for anyone working with or planning to develop applications effectively in ABAP.

The ABAP environment comprises a runtime system, development infrastructure, database interface, and presentation tools, all structured across a multitier architecture.

ABAP Runtime Environment

ABAP Runtime Environment is the core engine upon which ABAP programs are executed. It handles their interaction with system components, such as accessing data or interacting with users.

The ABAP runtime environment consists of the following core components:

Runtime Environment	Description
Program Storage	Unlike many other programming languages, which store programs as separate files on the operating system’s file system, ABAP programs are directly stored in the SAP database, which simplifies version control and deployment.
Code Forms	There are two forms of ABAP code: source code, which is human-readable and editable, and generated code, which is a binary representation of the executed source code and is executed by the runtime system.
Runtime System	This is the core component of the SAP kernel, which acts as a virtual machine and controls the processing of ABAP statements, screen flow logic, memory management, and event handling.
Database Interface	Translates ABAP statements written in Open SQL into Native SQL DBMS to make them understandable by the underlying database.
Database Communication	All communication with relational databases, such as connection and transaction control, is handled by the runtime environment for efficient data access and manipulation.
Buffering	Data and tables that are frequently accessed are stored in the memory of the NetWeaver application server to improve performance and reduce database load time.

SAP Systems and Landscapes

ABAP applications and programs are structured and organized into landscapes to support the software development life cycle and business operations.

Below are the major components of SAP systems:

SAP System: An SAP system consists of a central relational database and one or more application servers, usually called instances. These components provide full functionality of the SAP software by working together.

SAP System Landscape	Description
Multiple Instances	To handle large workloads, performance, and load balancing scenarios, the SAP system can utilize multiple application server instances to ensure that user requests are distributed across different instances.
Web Application Server Landscapes	This landscape enables organizations to create multi-tier structures that separate development, testing, and production environments.
Development System	The deployment system is where developers write, test, and customize their code.
Testing/Quality Assurance System	This is where QA users test and validate developed programs against requirements, reporting inconsistencies back to developers.
Production System	The actual live SAP system used by end-users, where business processes and transactions are executed.
Change and Transport System (CTS)	This is an SAP tool that transports developed objects, such as programs or configurations, between development, test, and production systems. It also provides concurrency control, version management, and deployment, allowing multiple developers to work together without conflicts.
Web Application Server Layers	A Web Application server consists of three layers: the database layer, the application layer, and the presentation layer.
Database Layer	This layer contains a physical DBMS database and database management software.
Application Layer	Contains one or multiple instances of the SAP system. This layer is responsible for handling business transactions, bulk processing, and ABAP development.
Presentation Layer	This is the user interface through which users interact within the SAP system, which can be the traditional SAP GUI or the modern web-based Fiori interface.
Data Flow	Data flow is represented as the following diagram: Presentation > Application > Database ⇄ Application ⇄ Presentation. It is a sequential flow. User input is taken by the presentation layer, sent to the application layer, and the application layer then interacts with the database layer to store or retrieve data. The application layer then gets the results back from the database layer, formats them, and passes them back to the presentation layer for display to the end user.

Software Layers (Components)

SAP systems comprise a combination of software components that provide various functionalities.

Below are some key software components:

• SAP_BASIS: This is the base component required by all ABAP systems to provide a runtime environment for communication services, system administration tools, and database connectivity.
• SAP_ABA: This component handles cross-application functions common to many business applications, such as general application services, business partner management, and address management.
• SAP_UI: This component is used to create modern user interfaces, especially for SAP UI5. SAP Fiori is based on SAP UI5.
• BBPCRM: This is an application/module component. In this example, it is specific to Customer Relationship Management (CRM); other examples include application components such as FI for financial accounting, SD for sales and distribution, and CO for the controlling module.

Components for Communication

SAP systems use several components for internal and external communication.

Remote Function Call (RFC) is the standard SAP interface for communication and data transfer between different SAP and non-SAP systems. The calls could be synchronous, requiring a response, or asynchronous for delayed processing, allowing flexible integrations.

The Internet Communication Manager (ICM) is another component of SAP’s Web Application Server, responsible for managing all internet communications as an interface between the outside world and SAP systems. It supports several protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, and SMTP.

Development Environment and Tools

The ABAP development environment is a suite of integrated tools designed to help developers create, manage, and execute ABAP programs.

ABAP Workbench is the core of the ABAP development environment, providing a centralized interface for developers.

ABAP Workbench

ABAP Workbench is SAP’s integrated development environment (IDE) designed to provide all the necessary tools for the complete development lifecycle, including creation, modification, and execution of ABAP programs.

Developers can access ABAP Workbench directly via SAP GUI or by entering t-code SE80 in the Object Navigator field. It is a collection of several tools, each serving a specific purpose in the development process.

The following are some standard tools, each of which is described in detail below:

• ABAP Editor
• ABAP Dictionary
• ABAP Painter
• Function Builder
• Class Builder
• Web Application Builder

ABAP Editor (SE38)

This is the primary tool for several types of ABAP programs, including writing and modification, data retrieval and presentation in the form of reports, module pools programs for processing logic for screen elements in dialog boxes, reusable blocks of code to be used in other programs, and collections of subroutines.

The ABAP editor provides two modes:

• A front-end editor with a new and old look,
• The back-end editor, which is a basic text-based editor, runs directly on the application server.

These modes are fully compatible with reading the source code created in any of them. The ABAP Editor offers several standard features, including syntax highlighting for keywords, variables, and comments, as well as auto-code suggestions, which help reduce errors and speed up development.

ABAP Dictionary (SE11)

ABAP Dictionary serves as a centralized repository for metadata objects within the SAP system. It describes the properties and structures of data objects used in an ABAP program.

Developers define several database objects in the ABAP dictionary, such as Domains, which are used to determine the technical attributes of a field, e.g., data type, length, and value range.

Other database objects definable in the ABAP dictionary are data elements, transparent tables, views, structures, and indexes. As the data objects are centralized in the ABAP dictionary, other ABAP programs that use these objects can query the dictionary for their definition, which ensures system-wide data consistency and reduced redundancy.

ABAP Painter (SE41/SE51)

ABAP Painter contains tools that developers use to design graphical user interface elements, such as GUI statuses and dynamic programs or screens.

It features two main tools: a Menu Painter and a Screen Painter.

• Menu painter is used to create menus, toolbars, and function key assignments.
• The screen painter is used to create actual screens displayed to the user, also known as dynpros, such as input/output fields, table controls, push buttons, and other visual elements.

Function Builder (SE37)

Function Builder is a dedicated tool for creating and maintaining function modules, which are reusable procedures within ABAP designed to perform specific tasks. They can be called from other ABAP programs.

A function module can be used to calculate the sum of a list of numbers, such as for currency conversion, retrieve data from a database, or validate a user’s input.

Class Builder (SE24)

The Class Builder is used to develop object-oriented ABAP code, primarily for creating and maintaining Class Pools. Class Pools are repository objects that contain the definitions and implementations of global interfaces and classes, including methods, attributes, inheritance structures, and events.

Web Application Builder

The Web Application Builder is used for developing web-based applications, such as Business Server Pages (BSPs), including ASP and JSP.

BSPs are generally considered legacy technology, although SAP continues to support them for legacy SAP systems that are still in use by organizations.

For new or modern web application development, SAP Fiori, via SAP UI5 and the ABAP RESTful Application Programming model, is a preferred approach.

You can access Web Application Builder for BSPs by entering t-code SE80 in Object Navigator, then specifying BSP Library and BSP Application.

ABAP Development Tools (ADT) / ABAP in Eclipse

ABAP Development Tools, previously referred to as ABAP in Eclipse, are the shift to modern IDEs for ABAP development.

This set of tools, provided by SAP, is an integrated plugin in the Eclipse IDE, providing a more powerful programming experience than the traditional ABAP Workbench.

Developers work locally in their Eclipse environment using features like version control, integrated debugging, refactoring, and advanced code completion. The work is continuously synchronized to the backend ABAP system.

ADT is the preferred development environment for SAP S/4HANA and cloud environments, supporting modern ABAP concepts such as CDS Views, RAP, and AMDP programming models.

ABAP Syntax and Concepts

ABAP has its own unique syntax and structural rules, which are customized for enterprise-level application development in SAP, providing efficiency and clarity in development. Although it originated from procedural programming roots, it has evolved significantly to support full-fledged object-oriented programming, inline declarations, and modern syntax enhancements.

ABAP Syntax Fundamentals

ABAP syntax sticks to a set of rules for clarity and consistency. Programs are built from statements, which are made up of:

• Keywords: such as DATA, WRITE, or SELECT, which are reserved words to define an operation.
• Additions: which are clauses to modify the behavior of keywords such as TYPE, VALUE, From, etc.
• Operands: The data objects on which the operation is performed, such as variable names.
• All statements must end with a period.

DATA lv_text TYPE string VALUE ‘Hello’.

WRITE lv_text.

ABAP is not case-sensitive, meaning there is no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters. “DATA”, “Data”, and “data” are all treated the same by the compiler.

While it provides flexibility, it is best practice to choose a consistent naming convention. The developers use comments to explain the code for readability, rather than incorporating the comments into the code itself:

• An asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line marks it as a comment in ABAP.
• Double quotes (‘’) are used for inline commenting.
• As white spaces matter in expressions, ABAP is flexible and intelligent enough to treat multiple spaces as a single space.

Basic Programming Elements

ABAP provides basic programming elements to perform everyday tasks, such as this simple Hello World program, which demonstrates the basic structure.

REPORT TEST.

WRITE ‘Hello, World!’.

The REPORT statement is used to declare the program name, and the WRITE statement is used to display the text “Hello, World!” on the screen.

Chained Statements

Chaining statements refers to combining statements that share the same starting parts or the same keyword, which reduces redundancy and makes the code clearer.

ABAP uses the colon operator (:) to combine the statements. For example, the code below is written three times using the same WRITE statement.

WRITE CUSTOMERINFO-FIRSTNAME.

WRITE CUSTOMERINFO-MIDDLENAME.

WRITE CUSTOMERINFO-LASTNAME.

Can be written as below by chaining the WRITE statement:

WRITE: CUSTOMERINFO-FIRSTNAME, CUSTOMERINFO-MIDDLENAME, CUSTOMERINFO-LASTNAME.

Data Types and Variables

ABAP provides support for both predefined and user-defined data types, allowing for the storage of various data types and variable declaration options.

Below are some built-in data types provided by ABAP.

• I: Integer (For whole numbers).
• P: Packed decimal, precise decimal numbers, can be used for currency or quantity fields.
• F: Floating point, numbers with decimal places which are suitable for scientific calculations.
• N: Character numeric, for character strings that only contain digits.
• C (Character): For fixed-length character strings.
• D: Date, for date formats.
• T: Time, for time formats.
• X: Hexadecimal, for fixed-length raw byte values.
• STRING: For variable-length character strings.
• XSTRING: For variable-length raw byte arrays. 

User-defined data types can also be declared using ABAP dictionary objects such as structures, data elements, views, tables, interfaces, and objects. Dates and times can be handled using integers and character strings, providing flexibility for manipulation and display.

ABAP offers several ways to declare variables; they must be declared before use. You can declare variables using a traditional explicit declaration with the DATA statement as below.

DATA: COUNTER TYPE I,

VALIDITY TYPE I VALUE 60,

LASTNAME (20) TYPE C.

The above statement declares three variables: COUNTER as an integer, VALIDITY as an integer with an initial value of 60, and LASTNAME as a character string of length 20.

ABAP 7.4 and later provide a modern way of declaring variables, such as through inline declarations at the point of their first use, which makes the code more concise.

DATA (counter) = 0.

DATA (last_name) = ‘Smith’.

ABAP Objects (Object-Oriented Programming)

ABAP Object is an object-oriented extension of the ABAP language that enables developers to apply modern object-oriented principles, resulting in more modular, reusable, and maintainable code. It is fully integrated within ABAP since version 4.6C, and is fully compatible with the existing procedural language.

Developers can mix procedural and object-oriented code in the same program. Key terms used in ABAP are objects, classes, methods, object references, interfaces, and attributes.

ABAP Objects supports the same principles of OOP:

• Encapsulation: Bundling of data and the methods that operate on the data within a class, restricting the visibility of resources.
• Inheritance: A mechanism by which a new class can use the behavior and properties of an existing class, declaring hierarchical organization and code reuse.
• Polymorphism: It allows identical objects to behave differently depending on the class they are called upon.

ABAP Programming Constructs & Features

ABAP provides a rich set of programming constructs and features.

This section outlines the key concepts, including ABAP statements, internal tables, transactions, and program types.

ABAP Statements

Statements are the building blocks of programs that perform various operations, such as data manipulation, input/output, and control flow. ABAP provides built-in statements that are specific to the language. Some statements stick to the traditional statement-based syntax, similar to COBOL, where operations can be specified using keywords, such as:

ADD TAX TO PRICE.

Modern ABAP statements from the release 7.4 follow syntax based on expressions to calculate values like C or Java, for example:

PRICE = PRICE + TAX.

Internal Tables

Internal tables are a fundamental data structure in the ABAP programming language.

They are highly efficient and optimized, as they are designed to store and manipulate data (reading, writing, and processing) in the working memory of application servers during program execution.

They are similar to arrays or lists of structured records, such as vectors of structs in C++ or lists of objects in Java.

Data retrieved from the database is temporarily stored in internal tables for processing before being further manipulated or displayed on screen. You must first define an internal table using the TYPES statement before using it.

Transactions

A transaction in ABAP refers to a specific program, sequence of screens, or business process execution. You can open processes and functions by typing a unique transaction code in the command field of the Object Navigator, which provides quick access to them.

Some example transaction codes are as follows:

• SE38: Open ABAP Editor for program development.
• SE09: Open Transport Organizer for managing transport requests.
• SE11: Open ABAP Dictionary for data object definitions.
• SE16N: View the content of the General Table.
• SE24: Open Class Builder for object-oriented development.
• SE37: Open Function Builder for function module development.
• ST22: Open ABAP Dump Analysis for analyzing program errors.

Other ways to start processes or functions besides directly entering the t-codes are navigating via SAP GUI Menus, or programmatically using the CALL TRANSACTION statement to execute, and LEAVE TO TRANSACTION statement for ending a current program.

Types of ABAP Programs

ABAP supports multiple types of programs categorized by their execution behavior, categorized into two:

Executable Programs

Users can directly execute these programs or schedule them for background processing, such as reports used for data retrieval and analysis, user input parameters, or keywords. The results are then displayed in a list format. Other executable programs include module pools, which are designed for complex user interactions involving multiple screens, such as a wizard with various screens. They are also referred to as Dynpros, with corresponding flow logic.

Non-Executable Programs

Users cannot start these programs directly; instead, they serve as building blocks or containers for definitions and reusable code that other programs can utilize.

• INCLUDE modules: These are simple source code files included in ABAP programs at generation time.
• Subroutine pools: These are collections of ABAP subroutines, reusable code blocks that can be called from other programs.
• Function groups: These are libraries or containers for function modules and reusable procedures that can be called from other programs.
• Object classes: These are ABAP classes, similar to Java classes, that define data attributes and methods for object creation.
• Interfaces: Contains empty method definitions which can be used by classes, used to achieve polymorphism and decoupling.
• Type pools: These are special repository objects that contain collections of data types and constants that can be used across multiple programs.

Core Data Services (CDS) Views

ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) Views are a next-generation data modeling approach within the SAP ecosystem, introduced with the advent of SAP HANA, for both analytical and transactional applications in the current and future SAP architecture.

CDS views enable developers to define semantic data models directly at the database layer, with embedded business logic, metadata, and relationships.

CDS views are defined using SQL-based Data Definition Language (DDL), making it familiar to anyone with SQL experience. It also uses Data Control Language for access control, which defines which users or roles can access the data and operations they can perform.

It employs a core principle known as “code pushdown,” meaning that complex calculations, business logic, and analytics are pushed down to the database layer, which improves performance and reduces data transfer between the application server and the database, especially in HANA’s in-memory engine.

CDS views can be reused with additional logic or fields to support extensibility and reduce development time.

CDS views are central components of SAP S/4HANA analytics, ABAP RESTful Application Programming, and SAP Fiori applications, providing real-time insights and development for on-premises and cloud-based solutions. SAP provides Virtual Data Model (VDM) as a set of comprehensive, built-in CDS views. CDS views can be defined using the Eclipse-based ABAP Development Tools (ADT), SAP Business Application Studio (BAS), and SAP Web IDE.

Data Entry & Reporting

Handling data efficiently is a central pillar of any enterprise software, whether for entry or reporting. ABAP plays a crucial role in managing and transferring data into and out of SAP systems, whether it is imported from legacy systems, entered manually, or extracted for decision-making and reporting purposes.

Data Entry/Transfer

SAP systems frequently require retrieving data from various sources, including other SAP or non-SAP systems, as well as from users, and then transferring the data to other systems. This data can originate from multiple SAP systems, such as SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, or between different SAP modules within an SAP system. It could also be retrieved from older non-SAP systems and integrated into a new SAP implementation, which is common during a migration approach.

SAP offers a comprehensive suite of tools for various data transfer and entry scenarios and volumes. Some of them are as follows:

• Batch Data Communication (BDC): Is a classic SAP tool used for a large volume of data transfer from external systems into SAP systems, by user input simulation. BDC is ideal for periodic updates in batches where direct database updates are not preferred.
• Intermediate Document (IDOC): IDOCs are highly structured data containers that follow a standard format in SAP for exchanging data between SAP systems and non-SAP systems, commonly used for processes such as procure-to-pay, order-to-pay, or master data distribution.
• Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW): A wizard-driven, powerful tool within SAP, specifically designed to migrate data from legacy systems into SAP, supports BDC, BAPI (Business Application Programming Interfaces), and IDOCs.
• Interfaces: Developers can create custom programs as interfaces to allow users to upload data directly from simple flat files such as .txt, .csv, or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into SAP. This makes it a more user-friendly and flexible way.

Besides automated tools, SAP also allows users to input data directly through standard transaction codes. The most straightforward approach is for users to manually enter data using transaction codes relevant to their business process in SAP screens, such as FB50 for GL document posting, VA01 for sales order creation, or ME21N for purchase order creation.

Reporting

ABAP enables users to retrieve, analyze, and present business data through reports, facilitating monitoring and informed decision-making. SAP offers a range of reporting features, including user-friendly query tools and custom-developed reports.

• Classical Reports: These are basic ABAP reports that are non-interactive and generate a single, extensive list of output containing all the required data. Users must sort the reports to access the necessary data after they are created.
• Interactive Reports: These reports allow user interaction; users can drill down to more detailed information after the initial report is generated.
• SAP Query (Ad-hoc Query/InfoSet Query): This is a powerful tool designed for end-users or functional consultants to generate reports based on their queries, input parameters, and output fields from different sources, without extensive knowledge of ABAP coding.

SAP Query provides different types of reports:

• Basic List: A simple table format report.
• Statistics: Generates reports based on statistical analysis such as counts, averages, or sums.
• Ranked List: Produces reports based on specific criteria.

Printing

Printing is also a crucial part of business operations. SAP offers a diverse range of document types to accommodate various printing scenarios.

Printing Process

The printing process in SAP involves several stages from document generation to its output on a physical printer. The SAP system generates various document types, including sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, and pay slips.

SAP supports multiple printing methods tailored to different organizational setups and user requirements.

• Local printing: This refers to the printer connected directly to the user’s local machine or SAP application server to print the documents.
• Remote printing (network): The printer is connected to the network, and print jobs are either sent to the print server with which the printer is connected or a network-attached printer, which is common in enterprise environments.
• Front-end printing (SAP GUI for Windows/HTML): This method enables users to print documents using their local printer, even if it is not recognized by the SAP application server, using SAP GUI or a web browser for HTML-based interfaces, such as SAP Fiori.
• Spool Server: The spool server is a component in SAP’s printing architecture; print requests or jobs initiated are not sent to the printer directly. The spool server handles them first. The spool server stores print jobs, manages print queues, formats data into a printer-friendly format, and then sends the print request to the designated printer device.

General Programming

ABAP supports several programming methods and techniques to manage diverse enterprise application requirements, from interactive transactional programming to background processing of data and communication.

Execution Methods

ABAP programs can be executed in different ways based on the nature and performance requirement of the tasks, such as online execution, e.g., dialog box-based or screen-based, an interactive way where the user directly executes the ABAP program from the SAP GUI or a web-based interface; these are called foreground tasks.

The other type of execution method is background execution programs, which are used for resource-intensive, long-running, or regularly scheduled tasks that run independently without user interaction.

Module Pool Programming

Module pool programming in ABAP refers to specific types of programs that are not executable on their own but serve as containers for the logic of multiple screens, also known as Dynpros. These can be screen layouts, such as visual screen designs with input/output fields, push buttons, or tables, etc., with a second part consisting of flow logic, including control code that determines the behavior of screens.

Flow logic contains two main sections:

• Process Before Output (BPO) in which modules are called to prepare the data before displaying it on screens
• Process After Input (PAI) is called after user interaction, such as a button press or data entry.

The screen processor is a part of the ABAP runtime that takes over control flow and calls modules, which consist of ABAP methods and subroutines.

Batch Input Processing

This technique automatically transfers protected data within SAP systems, simulating user interaction with SAP standard transactions. It uses a sequence of screen calls and input fields with the same application logic and validation as manual data entry, but is automatic and ensures data integrity. This technique is commonly used for periodic updates, data migration, or uploading of data from legacy systems.

Communications Programs

ABAP supports the development of communication programs to communicate with external systems using standard protocols. However, modern communication integration is being achieved using new technologies such as web services or OData.

ABAP has historically supported the Common Programming Interface for Communication (CPI-C), an IBM standard for program-to-program communication in a distributed environment. Other examples of communication programs are Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) and Remote Function Calls (RFCs).

Sequential Datasets

Sequential datasets are often used for handling flat files on the application server’s file system, which is also supported by ABAP programs. These programs utilize specific statements for file operations, such as reading and writing data to and from text or CSV files, importing external data (e.g., daily sales figures or employee records) into the SAP system for processing, and exporting data in the form of reports or logging it into text files for debugging or auditing purposes.

Modern interfaces prefer structured data formats such as JSON or XML and direct API calls.

Security, Performance and Maintenance

ABAP provides a comprehensive framework to ensure the security, performance, and maintenance of ABAP applications.

Security

Security is a paramount aspect in ABAP development, safeguarding sensitive data and its integrity. ABAP uses SAP’s standard concept of role-based authorization and access control.

The roles contain authorization objects to grant access to ABAP programs, the data they process, and transactions.

Authorization objects define permissions such as creating, modify or display activities, specific organizational units like plant code, company code etc., when a user executes a program, their authorization is checked by system against the authorization objects, ensuring the user can only access the resources and functions for which he is required to do his job responsibilities.

Performance

Optimizing the performance of ABAP applications is crucial when dealing with large data volumes. Developers are encouraged to adhere to best practices to enhance performance, such as minimizing nested loops and inefficient data processing. They should utilize optimized statements for reading, writing, and processing internal tables. Handling database access efficiently using the tools provided by ABAP, such as Open SQL, Code Pushdown for SAP HANA, AMDP, and ensuring the appropriate indexes for database tables to speed up the data retrieval.

SAP offers a robust suite of tools within ABAP Workbench for analyzing and optimizing program performance, including ABAP Runtime Analysis, which identifies performance bottlenecks, database access times, and memory consumption.

SQL Trace within ABAP Workbench can be used to monitor database calls made by ABAP programs, identifying inefficient database queries. Additionally, Workload Analysis provides an overview of system performance, transaction response times, and resource utilization.

Versioning & Maintenance

ABAP provides effective versioning and maintenance, ensuring that all ABAP programs, data dictionary objects, and other development objects are stored centrally in the ABAP repository within the SAP database, which simplifies management and ensures consistency across SAP systems.

The ABAP Workbench provides version control for all objects in the repository. For example, each time an ABAP program is modified, a new version is created, allowing developers to compare different versions, track changes, or revert to a previous version when needed. SAP ABAP code provides the Change and Transport System (CTS), which records changes to development objects and configurations in transport requests. These requests are then systematically transported between development, testing, and production environments.

Extensibility

ABAP enables developers to extensively customize and enhance standard SAP applications without modifying the original source code, a core principle that ensures smooth upgrades. No modification strategy is crucial for simplified upgrades. If the original code is modified, upgrades would be risky and complex. Custom changes will need to be reapplied with each new SAP release, and custom code could be transferred to new releases as it is isolated from the core code.

Featured Courses and Certification

SAP and its partners offer a structured approach to various learning and training paths, certifications, and featured courses, designed to guide organizations and individuals through all stages of SAP ABAP programming.

SAP Learning and Training Paths

Below are some foundational courses provided by the official SAP training website for ABAP, covering basic to advanced-level programming, including object-oriented techniques, performance optimization, and ABAP Workbench tools. These courses encompass basic syntax, internal tables, data types, and modularization techniques.

ABAP Core

https://training.sap.com/trainingpath/Database+&+Technology-Development-ABAP+Core

Learning the basics of ABAP Programming on SAP BTP

https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/learn-the-basics-of-abap-programming-on-sap-btp

Acquiring Core ABAP Skills

https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/acquire-core-abap-skills

SAP S/4HANA Application Programming

Below course link from SAP provides fundamentals of SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite, basic to intermediate ABAP programing, Advanced level covers the topics such as Data Modeling in ABAP dictionary, ABAP Core Data Service, ABAP RESTful Application Programing Model, Custom code migration from SAP ERP to S/4HANA, Data Migration using SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit.

Get Started with SAP S/4HANA Application Programming

The link below will get you started with in-app Extensibility in SAP S/4HANA, including the development and implementation of extensions, SAP Fiori launchpad personalization, variant management, SAP Fiori runtime authoring, creation of data source extensions and custom fields, custom logic, and transport extension items.

Get started with in-app Extensibility in SAP S/4HANA

Creating Forms

The link below will get you started with building and printing Forms based on SAP Smart Forms and PDF. It also provides learning on how to build interactive forms, including Form interface, context, layout, usage and structure, integration, templates, output management, and customization of Forms.

Get Started with Creating Forms

Programming for SAP HANA

This course is designed for developers who want to learn how to develop optimized ABAP applications for the SAP HANA in-memory database. It has three levels:

Levels	Coverage
Beginners	Cover broader topics such as technology, architecture, data modeling, data management, and application development.
Intermediate	Covers analytical processing, powering data warehouses, monitoring, security, and data privacy with SAP HANA, including migration to SAP HANA.
Advanced	Covers calculation view modeling, graphical modeling, SQL-based modeling, Core Data Services: ABAP transport of SAP HANA objects (HTC and HTA), full text search in ABAP, input fields for type-ahead search, and SAP list viewer (ALV) optimized for SAP HANA.

Visit Course Page

Programming Certifications

Along with ABAP programming, SAP also provides certifications to validate your skills and knowledge of ABAP. These certifications are globally recognized for developers’ proficiency; some examples of these certifications are as follows.

• SAP Certified Development Associate is an entry-level certification from SAP.
• SAP Certified Specialist certifications
  • SAP Certified Specialist – SAP BW/4HANA Delta
  • SAP Certified Specialist – SAP S/4HANA Conversion and SAP System Upgrade
  • SAP Certified Specialist – Implementation Consultant – SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition
  • SAP Certified Specialist – Project Manager – SAP Activate for Agile Implementation Management

Other certifications for specific technologies are as follows.

• SAP Certified Associate – SAP Fiori Application Developer
• SAP Certified Professional – Solution Architect – SAP BTP

In addition to the above learning paths and certifications, the link below provides access to all certifications offered by the official SAP learning platform.

Access Certifications on SAP Learning Platforms