Introduction to ABAP: Datatypes, Operators & Editor - Tutorial

ABAP stands for - Advanced Business Application Programming.It is  a programming language for developing applications for the SAP R/3 system.

The latest version of ABAP is  called  ABAP Objects and supports object-oriented programming. SAP will run applications written using ABAP/4, the earlier ABAP version, as well as applications using ABAP Objects.

Without further adieu , lets dive into ABAP.

Note, this tutorial will not go into extensive details on ABAP language constructs (which become very boring to read ) but quickly introduce key concepts to get you started so you can focus your attention on more important topics.

Data Types

Syntax to declare a variable in ABAP -

DATA Variable_Name Type Variable_Type

Example:

DATA employee_number Type I.

The following is a list of Data Types supported by ABAP

Processing Data - Assigning Values

a=16.

move 16 to a.

write a to b.

- Arithmetic Operations

compute a = a*100.

Control Statements

Following control statements can be used - - If ... EndIf Loop

if [not] exp [ and / or [not] exp ].
........
[elseif exp.
.......]
[else.
.......]
Endif.

- Case statement

Case variable.
when value1.
.........
when value2.
.........
[ when others.
.........]
Endcase.
Do.

-While loop

While <logical expression>.
.....
.....
Endwhile.

- Do loop

Do <n> times.
.....
.....
Enddo.

Logical Operator

A list of logical operators

• GE or >=
• GT or >
• LE or <=
• LT or <
• EQ or =
• NE or <>

ABAP/4 Editor

Finally , here is where you will spent most of your time as a developer creating / modifying programs. Transaction SE38