SAP ABAP with New Age

New Open SQL

2019-12-30T22:40:00.001-08:00

Comma and Escaping variable

Comma: With New SQL, fields to be selected are separated by comma operator. Old SQL statement is still valid however the written SQL should be either fully new SQL or old SQL… mixing both syntaxes give a syntax error! e.g. If a field list is separated by a comma, the host variables must be escaped with @ sign.

Escaping Variable: Now any Variable, Work area or Internal table which are local to logic, must be escaped with @ sign when using New SQL. This clearly distinguishes the table fields from external variables.

Explanation:

With new open SQL:

Selection list of fields has to be separated by a comma AND
At the same time, any host variable used for either for comparison or storing a value must be escaped by @ sign

With new open SQL, either both of above should hold true or new SQL shouldn’t be used at all and old SQL should be used.

Selecting a Constant

ABAP HANA 7.51: Selecting a Constant

Selecting a constant is possible now in a SELECT query. There may be different reasons for selecting a constant, however, in reality, it doesn’t fetch anything from the database. e.g. This can be readily used for existence check.

Explanation:

Here we are selecting a constant ABAP_TRUE which is defined in TYPE-POOL ABAP with type BOOLEAN and value X.

If Material number 112 is found in MARA table, nothing is fetched from Database but since the query is successful, LV_EXISTS is set to ‘X’ which is the value of ABAP_TRUE.

Hence, we didn’t fetch any field from Database and selecting a constant helped to do an existence check.

Arithmetic Calculation

ABAP HANA 7.51: Arithmetic Calculation

With ABAP 7.4+, it is now possible to do basic arithmetic calculation inside SQL query. Some arithmetic operations which are now possible are:

Addition,
Subtraction,
Multiplication,
Division, and
Calculating remainder value(MOD)

Apart from basic mathematical operations, new ABAP offers a good number of value-added bonus operations which make ABAPing faster and elegant. To name a few of them would be:

ABS(argument) – Gives absolute value of argument
DIVISION(argument1,argument2,DEC) – Result is division of argument1
“by argument2 and rounded to DEC number of places
DIV(argument1,argument2) – Gives Integer part of Division operation
FLOOR(argument) – Provides just immediate smaller neighbor Integer
CEIL(argument) – Provides just immediate bigger neighbor Integer
DATS_ADD_DAYS(date1, dayCount,if_error) – Returns a date, dayCount days after date1
DATS_DAYS_BETWEEN(date1,date2) – Returns interval between 2 dates
COALESCE(argument1,….) – Returns first non-null argument
CONCAT_WITH_SPACE(argument1,argument2,) – concatenates
“arguments with number of spaces provided in 3rd argument
CONCAT(argument1,….) – concatenates arguments, trailing blanks are not taken into account
LENGTH(argument) – Gives length of argument but ignores trailing blanks
LOWER(argument) – Converts the string argument to lower case

The output will create an Internal table with four columns. Name of the fourth column will be ‘SEATSFREE’ and it will be a calculated value.

Concatenation in SQL

ABAP HANA 7.51: Concatenation

Enhanced ABAP gives another new feature of Concatenation which makes it possible to concatenate multiple selected fields which can be merged with hardcoded strings, spaces or delimiters.

Concatenation in new Open SQL query is achieved with && operator. If any hardcoded string is to be also concatenated, it is enclosed inside single quotes. All Variables, Constants and hardcoded literals are kept inside small brackets “( … )”. As the last syntax action, ‘to be concatenated text’ is given an alias with AS keyword. This will effectively create a field with given alias in the created Internal table.

Refer below Source code Example!

The output of above query will create an Internal table with only one field called KEY!

CASE Statement

ABAP HANA 7.51: CASE Statement

Newly introduced CASE statement comes as a longtime prayer of ABAPers heard by SAP. Case inside SELECT simplifies application logic and make code easy to understand. To name a few, some of the most important advantages of the CASE statement is as below:

No need to do a separate loop on Internal table generated by SQL query just for CASE-based filtering data fetched from the database.
This reduces overall effort and number of lines of code to be written
It is possible to Code push down a complex business logic to the database layer which practically makes execution faster on HANA database

CASE keyword works with WHEN, THEN and ELSE keywords and entire CASE statement have to be given an alias with AS.

The output of above SQL query will create Internal table LT_MARA with two fields viz. MATNR and MATERIAL_TYPE. The second column MATERIAL_TYPE is calculated by taking a CASE of Material Type available in Material Master and classify a Material into three categories.

Case Insensitive search with SELECT

ABAP HANA 7.51: Case Insensitive search with SELECT

Case Insensitive search can be achieved by using a combination of either of two:

String function TO_LOWER( ) and SQL string function LOWER( ) with LIKE operator
String function TO_UPPER( ) and SQL string function UPPER( ) with LIKE operator

Sample Source Code: By converting Search string to lower case

” Lower case

DATA(search_term) = `Box`.

search_term = |%{ to_lower( search_term ) }%|.

SELECT
DISTINCT maktx FROM makt

WHERE lower( maktx ) LIKE @search_term

INTO TABLE @DATA(lt_search_result).

IF sy–subrc IS INITIAL.

cl_demo_output=>display( lt_search_result ).

ELSE.

WRITE : ‘Search failed!’.

ENDIF.

In above code, the search term is first converted to lower case which precedes and trails with a %(works as a wildcard to be used with LIKE operator). A SELECT query is made on MAKT which contains Material descriptions(may contain mixed lower and upper cases).

If someone makes a query to find Material description checking equality with a string, there is a high chance to miss the right hit.

To get rid of this situation, query converts material description to lower case inside query and then compares it with search term using LIKE operator. This technique offers a good chance for the right hit.

Output: By converting Search string to lower case

The output gives all Material descriptions which contain ‘Box’ in any part of the string with any case.

Sample Source Code: By converting Search string to upper case

” Upper case

DATA(search_term) = `Box`.

search_term = |%{ to_upper( search_term ) }%|.

SELECT
DISTINCTmaktx FROM makt

WHERE upper( maktx ) LIKE @search_term

INTO TABLE @DATA(lt_search_result).

IF sy–subrc IS INITIAL.

cl_demo_output=>display( lt_search_result ).

ELSE.

WRITE : ‘Search failed!’.

ENDIF.

This a very similar code with only two differences:

Search term string is converted to UPPER case using to_upper string function
SELECT query uses UPPER string function to convert Material description to upper case

All the functionalities work same!

Output: By converting Search string to upper case

The output gives all Material descriptions which contain ‘Box’ in any part of the string with any case. This is exactly same to the first Variant of case-insensitive search discussed above.

New SQL functions with ABAP 7.51

ABAP HANA 7.51: New SQL functions with ABAP 7.51

SAP provides many new SQL functions which help to perform in-SQL calculations and hence facilitates Code push down. In some of the cases, it can enhance code performance in a great way. Some of the new functions are as below:

DATS_ADD_DAYS(date1, dayCount,if_error) – Returns a date, dayCount days after date1
DATS_DAYS_BETWEEN(date1,date2) – Returns interval between 2 dates
COALESCE(argument1,….) – Returns first non-null argument
CONCAT_WITH_SPACE(argument1,argument2,) – concatenates arguments with number of spaces provided in 3rd argument
CONCAT(argument1,….) – concatenates arguments, trailing blanks are not taken into account
LENGTH(argument) – Gives length of argument but ignores trailing blanks
LOWER(argument) – Converts the string argument to lower case
MOD(argument1,argument2) – Gives remainder after argument1/argument2
DIVISION(argument1,argument2,DEC) – Result is division of argument1 by argument2 and rounded to DEC number of places
DIV(argument1,argument2) – Gives Integer part of Division operation
FLOOR(argument) – Provides just immediate smaller neighbor Integer
CEIL(argument) – Provides just immediate bigger neighbor Integer
ABS(argument) – Gives absolute value of argument

BASE, CORRESPONDING & MOVE-CORRESPONDING Operators

2019-12-30T22:16:00.000-08:00

ABAP HANA 7.51: BASE, CORRESPONDING & MOVE-CORRESPONDING Operators

The BASE operator is used as a baseline for ABAP operations and has multiple uses. e.g. it can be used for data insertion and baselining when comparing data. With help of CORRESPONDING & MOVE-CORRESPONDING Operators, data movement and copying is made easier now.

Please refer to below examples to see the overview of the capabilities of BASE, CORRESPONDING & MOVE-CORRESPONDING Operators.

Sample Source Code: Variant 1 – BASE before an Internal table can be used for
insert

TYPES ltty_days TYPE TABLE OF string WITH EMPTY KEY.

WRITE : / |Variant 1 : BASE before an Internal table used for insert|.

DATA(lt_days) =

VALUE ltty_days(

( `Mon` ) ( `Tue` ) ( `Wed` ) ).

lt_days =

VALUE #(

BASE lt_days

( `Thu` ) ( `Fri` ) ( `Sat` ) ( `Sun` ) ).

loop at lt_days ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<lfs_days>).

WRITE : / |{ <lfs_days> }|.

ENDLOOP.

Output: Variant 1

Sample Source Code: Variant 2 – Usage with CORRESPONDING operator on Work area

WRITE : / |Variant 2 : usage with CORRESPONDING operator on Work area|.

TYPES:
BEGIN OFlty_type1,

field1 TYPE i,

END OF lty_type1,

ltty_type1 TYPE TABLE OF lty_type1 WITH EMPTY KEY,

BEGIN OF lty_type2,

field1 TYPE i,

field2 TYPE i,

END OF lty_type2,

ltty_type2 TYPE TABLE OF lty_type2 WITH EMPTY KEY.

DATA(lwa_type1) = VALUE lty_type1( field1 = 1 ).

DATA(lwa_type2) = VALUE lty_type2( field1 = 2 field2 = 3 ).

MOVE-CORRESPONDINGlwa_type1 TO lwa_type2.

WRITE : / lwa_type2–field1, space, lwa_type2–field2.

“Reverting back to original

lwa_type2 = VALUE lty_type2( field1 = 2 field2 = 3 ).

lwa_type2 = CORRESPONDING #( lwa_type1 ).

WRITE : / lwa_type2–field1, space, lwa_type2–field2.

“Reverting back to original

lwa_type2 = VALUE lty_type2( field1 = 2 field2 = 3 ).

lwa_type2 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lwa_type2 ) lwa_type1 ).

WRITE : / lwa_type2–field1, space, lwa_type2–field2.

Output: Variant 2

Sample Source Code: Variant 3 – Usage with CORRESPONDING operator on Internal
table

WRITE : / |Variant 3 : usage with CORRESPONDING operator on Internal table|.

DATA(lt_type1) = VALUE ltty_type1( ( field1 = 1 )

( field1 = 2 ) ).

DATA(lt_type2) = VALUE ltty_type2( ( field1 = 3 field2 = 4 )

( field1 = 5 field2 = 6 )

( field1 = 7 field2 = 8 ) ).

MOVE-CORRESPONDINGlt_type1 TO lt_type2.

WRITE : / |MOVE-CORRESPONDING lt_type1 TO lt_type2.|.

LOOP AT lt_type2 ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL().

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2.

ENDLOOP.

“Reverting back

lt_type2 = VALUE ltty_type2( ( field1 = 3 field2 = 4 )

( field1 = 5 field2 = 6 )

( field1 = 7 field2 = 8 ) ).

MOVE-CORRESPONDING lt_type1 TO lt_type2 KEEPING TARGET LINES.

WRITE : / |MOVE-CORRESPONDING lt_type1 TO lt_type2 KEEPING TARGET LINES.|.

LOOP AT lt_type2 ASSIGNING <lfs_type2>.

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2.

ENDLOOP.

“Reverting back

lt_type2 = VALUE ltty_type2( ( field1 = 3 field2 = 4 )

( field1 = 5 field2 = 6 )

( field1 = 7 field2 = 8 ) ).

lt_type2 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type2 ) lt_type1 ).

WRITE : / |lt_type2 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type2 ) lt_type1 ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type2 ASSIGNING <lfs_type2>.

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2.

ENDLOOP.

Output: Variant 3

Sample Source Code: Variant 4 – CORRESPONDING – BASE – MAPPING

WRITE : / |Variant 4 : CORRESPONDING – BASE – MAPPING|.

lt_type2 = VALUE ltty_type2( ( field1 = 23 field2 = 24 )

( field1 = 25 field2 = 26 )

( field1 = 27 field2 = 28 ) ).

TYPES : BEGIN OF lty_type3,

field1 TYPE i,

field3 TYPE i,

END OF lty_type3,

ltty_type3 TYPE TABLE OF lty_type3 WITH EMPTY KEY.

DATA(lt_type3) = VALUE ltty_type3( ( field1 = 33 field3 = 30 )

( field1 = 35 field3 = 30 )

( field1 = 37 field3 = 30 ) ).

lt_type3 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type3 ) lt_type2 ).

WRITE : / |lt_type3 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type3 ) lt_type2 ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type3 ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL().

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field3.

ENDLOOP.

” Reverting back values

lt_type3 = VALUE ltty_type3( ( field1 = 33 field3 = 30 )

( field1 = 35 field3 = 30 )

( field1 = 37 field3 = 30 ) ).

lt_type3 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type3 ) lt_type2 MAPPING field3 = field2 ).

” Above DISCARDING DUPLICATES

WRITE : / |lt_type3 = CORRESPONDING #( BASE ( lt_type3 ) lt_type2 MAPPING field3 = field2 ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type3 ASSIGNING <lfs_type3>.

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field3.

ENDLOOP.

Output: Variant 4

Sample Source Code: Variant 5 – CORRESPONDING – BASE – EXCEPT

” MAPPING & EXCEPT can come separately or together

” if both come together, EXCEPT come after MAPPING

WRITE : / |Variant 5 : CORRESPONDING – BASE – EXCEPT|.

TYPES : BEGIN OF lty_type4,

field1 TYPE i,

field2 TYPE i,

field3 TYPE i,

END OF lty_type4,

ltty_type4 TYPE TABLE OF lty_type4 WITH EMPTY KEY.

“Reverting back values

lt_type2 = VALUE ltty_type2( ( field1 = 23 field2 = 24 )

( field1 = 25 field2 = 26 ) ).

DATA(lt_type4) = VALUE ltty_type4( ( field1 = 43 field2 = 41 field3 = 40 )

( field1 = 45 field2 = 42 field3 = 40 ) ).

lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 ).

WRITE : / |lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type4 ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL().

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2, space, –field3.

ENDLOOP.

lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 EXCEPT field2 ).

WRITE : / |lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 EXCEPT field2 ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type4 ASSIGNING <lfs_type4>.

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2, space, –field3.

ENDLOOP.

lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 MAPPING field2 = field2 EXCEPT * ).

WRITE : / |lt_type4 = CORRESPONDING #( lt_type2 MAPPING field2 = field2 EXCEPT * ).|.

LOOP AT lt_type4 ASSIGNING <lfs_type4>.

WRITE : / –field1, space, –field2, space, –field3.

ENDLOOP.

Output: Variant 5

Alternate for READ Table statement

2019-12-30T22:01:00.002-08:00

ABAP HANA 7.51: Alternative to READ TABLE

There is now an alternate for ‘READ TABLE’ statement which is achieved with help of already existing ASSIGN statement. This is a good to have practice in newer ABAP coding convention if it is used wisely. Some important points to be noticed here:

An Internal table lookup can be done by using INDEX of the row
- If an invalid index is used to reference data i.e. a row at referred index doesn’t exist, in that case, runtime exception CX_SY_ITAB_LINE_NOT_FOUND is thrown.
An Internal table lookup is possible by searching with a field-value pair.
The binary Search option is not available in this variant. All searches are essentially sequential search.
- If Internal table data is huge and sorted, it is recommended to use READ TABLE… BINARY SEARCH option to achieve better performance.

Sample Source Code: Variant 1 – ASSIGN index

Output: Variant 1 – ASSIGN index

Sample Source Code: Variant 2 – READ with field

The source code is given just for illustration. No output is provided for this example.

Sample Source Code: Variant 3

Runtime error “cx_sy_itab_line_not_found” is thrown if index can’t be read. This should be particularly taken care in advance to minimize chances of runtime errors.

Output: Variant 3

LINE_EXISTS

ABAP HANA 7.51: LINE_EXISTS Function

LINE_EXISTS is a table function which checks if the specified line exists in the Internal table or not. This returns either TRUE or FALSE. Argument of this function can be a simple check or a table expression. Some important points to be noted here:

LINE_EXISTS works as a READ TABLE with TRANSPORTING NO FIELDS which returns SY-SUBRC
This doesn’t return SY-TABIX or SY-INDEX which can indicate the line of match during search

Sample Source Code: Variant 1 – Search by Index

Output: Variant 1 – Search by Index

Sample Source Code: Variant 2 – Search by field-value pair

Output: Variant 2 – Search by field-value pair

Inline Declaration

2019-12-30T02:12:00.002-08:00

ABAP HANA 751 : Inline Declaration

Inline Declaration reduces the number of lines to be written and hence reduces the effort for logic development and make maintenance easy and less costly.

The inline declaration should be an essential part of a good coding convention designed for ABAP development for S4 HANA.

Below are the most important type of Inline Declarations:

Inline Variable Declaration

ABAP HANA 751 : Inline Variable Declaration

Inline Declaration make it possible to define variables and work areas on the fly. There is no need to write a separate line for variable declaration. This construct also help to reduce lines of code.

Sample Source Code: Variant 1

Output: Variant 1

Sample Source Code: Variant 2

Output: Variant 2

Inline field-symbol declaration

ABAP HANA 751 : Inline Field-symbol Declaration

SAP ABAP 7.51 Inline Declaration make it possible to define field-symbols on the fly. There is no need to write a separate line for field-symbol declaration. This construct also helps to reduce lines of code.

Sample Source Code: Variant 1 – READ TABLE…

Output: Variant 1

Sample Source Code: Variant 2 – LOOP…

Output: Variant 2

Inline declaration in SQL

ABAP HANA 751 : Inline Field-symbol Declaration

SAP ABAP 7.51 Inline Declaration make it possible to define Internal Table, Work area and Variable on the fly from within the query. There is no need to write a separate line for Internal Table, Work area, and Variable declaration. This construct effectively helps to reduce lines of code and saves costly effort.

Declaring Variables, work areas and internal table inline in SQL statements are emerging as a good programming practice. This also gives flexibility that if in future programmer plans to select one/more field(s) in the query, in that case, there is no need to adjust internal table’s/work area’s type. This saves effort during maintenance also.

Sample Source Code: Variant 1 – Internal tables

Output: Variant 1

Repeating Values

2019-12-30T01:56:00.000-08:00

Repeating Values

ABAP HANA 7.51 : Repeating Values

ABAP 7.51 provides new keyword REPEAT which can be used to repeating output. This can be effectively used in some of the scenario and reduce LOOPs and lines of code.

Sample Source Code – Variant 1:

Output – Variant 1:

Sample Source Code – Variant 2:

Output – Variant 2:

Sample Source Code – Variant 3 : Case of Error handling

Repeat take 2 arguments. Second argument “occ” has to be always positive value. In case when this can’t be handled, code throws an exception called “cx_sy_strg_par_val”.

Error handing

Output – Variant 3:

Concatenating Literals and Variables

2019-12-30T01:53:00.000-08:00

Concatenating Literals and Variables

Old way to concatenate in ABAP:

Keyword CONCATENATE was used to concatenate strings, literals and variables. In this methodology, hardcoded strings were kept in single quotes.

New way to concatenate in ABAP:

Pipe symbol(|) is used along with & is used to concatenate. With this new way, hardcoded strings are to be kept inside || and Constants as well as Variables are kept inside |{ }|. Values to be concatenated are separated by ‘&’.

Sample code for concatenation as below:

Output:

ABAP 7.4 syntaxes

2019-12-25T04:35:00.001-08:00

Inline declarations are a new way of declaring variables and field symbols at operand positions.

Before 7.40

DATA text TYPE string.
text = `…`.

With 7.40

DATA(text) = `…`.

Declaration of table work areas

Before 7.40

DATA wa like LINE OF itab.
LOOP AT itab INTO wa.
...
ENDLOOP.

With 7.40

LOOP AT itab INTO DATA(wa).
...
ENDLOOP.

Declaration of a helper variable

Before 7.40

DATA cnt TYPE i.
FIND … IN … MATCH COUNT cnt.

With 7.40

FIND … IN … MATCH COUNT DATA(cnt).

Declaration of a result

Before 7.40

DATA xml TYPE xstring.
CALL TRANSFORMATION … RESULT XML xml.

With 7.40

CALL TRANSFORMATION … RESULT XML DATA(xml).

Declaration of actual parameters

Before 7.40

DATA a1 TYPE …

DATA a2 TYPE …

oref->meth( IMPORTING p1 = a1

IMPORTING p2 = a2

… )

With 7.40

oref->meth( IMPORTING p1 = DATA(a1)

IMPORTING p2 = DATA(a2)

… ).

Declaration of reference variables for factory methods

Before 7.40

DATA ixml TYPE REF TO if_ixml.
DATA stream_factory TYPE REF TO if_ixml_stream_factory.
DATA document TYPE REF TO if_ixml_document.

ixml = cl_ixml=>create( ).
stream_factory = ixml->create_stream_factory( ).
document = ixml->create_document( ).

With 7.40

DATA(ixml) = cl_ixml=>create( ).
DATA(stream_factory) = ixml->create_stream_factory( ).
DATA(document) = ixml->create_document( ).

This example is my favorite. When working with class libraries as the iXML-Library you don’t have to care about the data type of the reference variables too much any more. You simply create them inline and use them. As you will see in the 7.40 version of the ABAP Example Library, this feature has facilitated my writings of example programs considerably.

Field Symbols

For field symbols there is the new declaration operator FIELD-SYMBOL(…) that you can use at exactly three declaration positions.

ASSIGN … TO FIELD-SYMBOL().

LOOP AT itab ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL().
…
ENDLOOP.

READ TABLE itab ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL() …

I guess it is clear to you what happens here.

Outlook

In my upcoming blogs I will make use of inline declarations when introducing other new features. Be prepared for code like this:

TYPES t_itab TYPE TABLE OF i WITH EMPTY KEY.

DATA(itab) = VALUE t_itab( ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ).

I hope this will help you guys...

Will post some more new syntaxes..in my next publish.

Thanks,

Divvis

Activate the TM Quick Search in Netweaver

2016-01-05T05:27:00.003-08:00

Hera is a nice way to access TM transactional documents directly from the NWBC search bar. Basically it looks like this, enter a search string in the NWBC search bar, get a result list instantaneously: Quicksearch Example

If you are interested in the functionality, you may check TMP033 ( http://podcast.tm-podcast.com/tmp033-tm-quicksearch/ ), the podcast episode about the topic. Now, how to activate the TM Quicksearch for you: 1. Install note 2260864 which is available from 9.1 onwards and comes with the required classes 2. Check and/or activate the SICF service: To make the search classes available they must be accessible as a service. This is done in transaction SICF. The path is sap->bc. In there add a service named tm_quick_search. The only tab where you need to maintain something is the handler list, in there enter the class /SCMTMS/CL_QUICK_SEARCHPROVIDE. It should look something like this:

3. Activate the service 4. Enter the Search provider URL: The easiest way to test the service is to enter the search provider explicitely in the NWBC search provider list. This can be done from the NWBC menu:

The URL is composed as follows:
First part: Your system url and port (you can get this from options->settings->connections in the NWBC menu)
Second part: /sap/bc/tm_quick_search?type=OpenSearchDescription
Third part: Optionally you can add some parameters like restriction to a certain search class, if you only want to search e.g. Forwarding orders, I will try to complete the list later in here, we can start with the default With this, you are done and can use the TM Quicksearch!

SAP ABAP tip of the Day...

2013-12-02T00:02:00.001-08:00

TIP 1: We often do upload or downloading of files. We sometimes save the files or the output of a program as a local file. Whenever we click on ‘Save as local file’, by default it shows up the SAP default working directory. We can change this default directory to the directory we need as follows. We can setup these directories according to the upload or download of files. To change the default directory for the uploading of files : Goto SU3 t-code. Click on ‘Parameters’ tab. Enter the parameter ‘GR9’ and enter the directory you want in the ‘Value’ field. Save the data. To change the default directory for the download of files, use the parameter GR8 and repeat above steps. TIP 2: When you try to download data from ALV grid display output (i.e. if you choose Local file then Spread sheet option is chosen) then default file extension will comes with “.TXT” if you want to change this extension with “.XLS” by default in order to save it in excel file then add below parameter LIST_CONVERT_TO_DAT with value ‘XLS’ in SU3 -> parameters tab.