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

Introduction

As discussed in the last article i.e. Search Help in SAP ABAP, a search Help in SAP ABAP are reusable objects that are used to assign input helps (F4 helps) to screen fields. If the data for the search help is bought from a single table, structure or view and is displayed based on a condition, then it will be termed as Elementary Search Help.

Definition

As the name suggest an elementary search help reads records from a single element and that can be a table, structure or a view and based on a condition it returns records which are displayed by a dialog box.

Steps to Create an Elementary Search Help:

1. Go to SE11-> Choose Search Help-> Give a Name-> Click Create-> Choose types of search help-> Elementary-> (u will be directed to the maintenance screen of search help).

Elementary Search Help in SAP ABAP

1. Under the definition, tab give a description (It will help to get your Search Help identified).
2.  Selection Method
   1. One can choose a SE11 Table,
   2. A View (Database, Projection or Help View)
   3. If you enter a table that has a text table (language specific tables) it will automatically mention its name.
3. Dialog behavior
   1. Display values immediately -> hit list displayed immediately, best suited for small entries.
   2. Dialog with value restriction -> if the list of possible entries is large, user can limit the data to be processed to prevent system load.
   3. Dialog depends on set of values -> If the hit list contains less than 100 entries, if the hit list contains more than 100 entries the system displays the dialog box for restricted values.
      

      Dialog behavior

4. Selection parameters
   Choose and select the fields through drop- down list from the selection method (tables, views) that is to be displayed in the selection screen.
   1. IMP (Importing Parameters)
      The input value/field is passed to the search help.
   2. EXP (Exporting Parameters)
      Export values back to the input help when the user selects an option or a row.
   3. LPOS (List position)
      Position on the output list (hit list) the user selects from.
   4. SPOS (Screen position)
      Position of parameters for value selection in the dialog box.
   5. Default
      To display default values (date, system-fields (values of structure SYST)).
5. Save -> Activate -> Test.

Use of an Elementary Search Help

1. Defines the standard flow of an input help.
2. Following components can be defined in search help.
   1. Selection Method
      Through this you can choose the data in the hit list where it can come from.
   2. Dialog behavior
      Choose the information displayed in the hit list and in the dialog box.
   3. Selection parameters
      Fields you can choose for hit lists and values to be displayed in the hit list that can be returned in screen fields.