ABAP: Program that speaks many language

Recently I had the opportunity to learn the ABAP programming language. ABAP is the "interpreted" language use to create the core modules in SAP R/3. Well actually they called it "Advanced Business Application Programming". Anyway, what I'm saying is that you can use the 'Repository Information System' to browse for any application component and lookup the exact source code for each T-code say FB50 - GL Posting.So, in a way, yes, SAP R/3 is open source.

Well back to our discussion on ABAP, it is an easy language compared to Java, C++ etc. But, to achieve an objective, say you want to get some records and display, there's like 10 or more ways to do it!

You can create a working area, populate it line by line from transparent table, or you can create an internal table to achieve the same way. Well in fact, in creating the working area you can a) create your own structure type or b) use an existing structure in the ABAP dictionary.

In other words there's no right or wrong way. Therefore it's pertinent to a Team Leader to dictate what kind of standards you should use. The reason being is that ABAP is backward compatible. Since the 70's the've been using ABAP, so the coding during that mainframe (R/2) time can still be used in an R/3 environment.

So yes, it's a program that speaks many languages. Which language, is up to you.

3 comments:

Mon Oct 03, 02:44:00 PM 2005 ady-rynn said...

dude,uve just been spammed..

neways,u r an SAP consultant,huh?i dunno ABAP.im using FICO at the mo.glad to know SAP is being made known in the blog

Mon Oct 03, 06:37:00 PM 2005 ngising said...

yeah..I've noticed that.

Nope..not an SAP consultant yet.
Still an SAP newbie.

Tue Oct 18, 08:10:00 AM 2005 ngising said...

welcome meng ngee! yep. Like you, I've just been given the opportunity to venture into SAP after being in other industries for like 5years++.