Preface – This post is part of the ABAP Beginner series.

Mandatory ABAP Syntax for Every Coder

The following ABAP syntax is mandatory for every coder:

1. ABAP is not a case sensitive language (It is case sensitive in the case of field name being passed in the function module).
2. Every program must start with a keyword.
3. Each program must end with a period (.)
4. Every chained statement must have a single keyword followed by a colon (:) and the individual statement followed by a comma (,).
   Example:
   DATA :LV_PLAYER(10) TYPE c,

LV_SCORE (100) TYPE n,

LV_WICKET (10) TYPE n.

5. To make the entire line comment use an asterisk (*) mark at the beginning of the statement.
6. To make a comment after a statement in the same line, use a double inverted comma (“) before the comment.
7. Use PRETTY PRINTER to provide indentation to your codes and make them readable for testers
8. Nomenclature: Use the following prefixes before given types of fields

Prefix	Field Name
LWA	Local Work Area
GWA/WA	Global Work Area
LTY	Local Structure
LT	Local Internal Table
GT	Global Internal Table
IT/ITAB	Internal Table
V	Variable
C	Contant
ZRP	Custom Report Program
ZCL	Custom Class
LV	Local Variable

 

[Note: Use underscores (_) after using prefixes]

9. ABAP codes are whitespace sensitive.
   Example: a = b+c(d) and a = b + c ( d ) have different meanings. The first one c(d), will give ‘c’ of length ‘d’. The second one will call function ‘c’ with parameter ‘d’.
10. In the ABAP custom field, i.e. custom reports, custom data element, custom domain always starts with ’Z’. It means everything we are going to create will be custom and not standard (SAP creates standard ones). So, they will start with ‘Z’ or ‘Y’.

Example: ZBarry_Allen might be my report name

 

11. ABAP provides both statements based syntax as well as the expression-based syntax
    Example:
    1. ADD Tax to Total.
    2. Total = Total + Tax.

Both will give the same output.