SAP Learning Journey

Using Control Structures in ABAP

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Implement conditional branching
  • Implement Iterations
  • Handle Exceptions

Implementing Conditional Branching

A conditional branching is a control structure that allows you to make the execution of code dependent on logical conditions.

Let's look at the different techniques of conditional branching.

Try It Out: Conditional Branching

  1. Like in the first exercise of this course, create a new global class that implements interface IF_OO_ADT_CLASSRUN.
  2. Copy the following code snippet to the implementation part of method if_oo_adt_classrun~main( ):
    Code snippet
    
* Declarations
**********************************************************************

    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 0.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 1.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 2.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE -1.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE -2.

* Example 1: Simple IF ... ENDIF.
**********************************************************************

    out->write(  `--------------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 1: Simple IF ... ENDIF.` ).
    out->write(  `-------------------------------` ).

    IF c_number = 0.
      out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals zero`   ).
    ELSE.
      out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER is NOT zero`   ).
    ENDIF.

* Example 2: Optional Branches ELSEIF and ELSE
**********************************************************************

    out->write(  `--------------------------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 2: Optional Branches ELSEIF and ELSE` ).
    out->write(  `--------------------------------------------` ).

    IF c_number = 0.
      out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals zero`            ).
    ELSEIF c_number > 0.
      out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER is greater than zero`   ).
    ELSE.
      out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER is less than zero`      ).
    ENDIF.

* Example 3: CASE ... ENDCASE
**********************************************************************

    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 3: CASE ... ENDCASE` ).
    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).

    CASE c_number.
      WHEN 0.
        out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals zero`             ).
      WHEN 1.
        out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals one`              ).
      WHEN 2.
        out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals two`              ).
      WHEN OTHERS.
        out->write( `The value of C_NUMBER equals non of the above` ).
    ENDCASE.
    Copy code
  3. Press CTRL + F3 to activate the class and F9 to execute it as a console app.
  4. Analyze the console output. Play around with the source code to get familiar with the concepts; Uncomment different declarations of constant c_number with different values to see, which branches of the code get executed.

Implementing Iterations

Iterations are control structures that define a block of code which is executed several times.

The simplest form of iteration consists of a code block surrounded by pair of statements DO and ENDDO. Without further measures this establishes an endless loop which must be avoided by one of the following possibilities:

Specified number of iterations

By extending the DO statement with an integer expression followed by keyword TIMES, you can specify explicitly how often the code block is to be iterated. The integer expression can be as simple as number literal, but also arithmetic calculations are an option. If the value of the expression equals 0, the code block between DO and ENDDO is not executed at all and the program immediately continues with the code after ENDDO.

Abort based on a logical condition

You can abort an iteration any time using the EXIT statement. The program then continues with the code after ENDDO. Be aware that outside of iterations EXIT has a different effect. There it terminates the processing of the current processing block, for example the current method.

Usually, EXIT is surrounded by IF and ENDIF to terminate the iteration depending on an abort condition. Be aware that such iterations can turn into endless loops, if the abort condition never gets true.

Of course it is possible to combine the two techniques, that is, explicitly specify the number of iterations and then leave the iteration with EXIT. Thus the number of iterations becomes a maximum number that might not be reached at runtime.

Based on an internal table

A third type of iteration is the LOOP … ENDLOOP structure that is used to consecutively read the rows of an internal table. Here, the number of iterations is determined by the number of rows in the internal table.

In the code block between DO and ENDDO, you can implement read-accesses to ABAP built-in data object sy-index. This integer variable serves as an iteration counter, that is, the ABAP runtime increases it by one at the beginning of each new iteration.

In contradiction to what you might be used to from other programming languages, sy-index starts with value 1 during the first iteration.

ABAP built-in variable sy-tabix can fulfill a similar purpose for iterations with LOOP. But be aware that strictly speaking sy-tabix is not really a counter but it identifies the position of the table row that is processed in the current iteration. Later we will see the difference when not all rows of an internal table are processed in a LOOP … ENDLOOP structure.

Try It Out: Iterations

  1. Like in the first exercise of this course, create a new global class that implements interface IF_OO_ADT_CLASSRUN.
  2. Copy the following code snippet to the implementation part of method if_oo_adt_classrun~main( ):
    Code snippet
    
* Declarations
**********************************************************************

    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 3.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 5.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 10.

    DATA number TYPE i.

* Example 1: DO ... ENDDO with TIMES
**********************************************************************

    out->write(  `----------------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 1: DO ... ENDDO with TIMES` ).
    out->write(  `----------------------------------` ).

    DO c_number TIMES.
      out->write(  `Hello World` ).
    ENDDO.

* Example 2: DO ... ENDDO with Abort Condition
**********************************************************************

    out->write(  `-------------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 2: With Abort Condition` ).
    out->write(  `-------------------------------` ).

    number = c_number * c_number.

    " count backwards from number to c_number.
    DO.

      out->write( |{ sy-index }: Value of number: {  number }| ).
      number = number - 1.

      "abort condition
      IF number <= c_number.
        EXIT.
      ENDIF.

    ENDDO.
    Copy code
  3. Press CTRL + F3 to activate the class and F9 to execute it as a console app.
  4. Analyze the console output. Play around with the source code to get familiar with the concepts; Uncomment different declarations of constant c_number to see how the different values affect the result.

Handling Exceptions

Exceptions

What are exceptions? Let's take a look.

Exception Handling

Now that you have learned about exceptions, let's see how you can handle them.

Try It Out: Exception Handling

  1. Like in the first exercise of this course, create a new global class that implements interface IF_OO_ADT_CLASSRUN.
  2. Copy the following code snippet to the implementation part of method if_oo_adt_classrun~main( ):
    Code snippet
    
* Declarations
**********************************************************************
    DATA result TYPE i.

    DATA numbers TYPE TABLE OF i.

* Preparation
**********************************************************************

    APPEND 123 TO numbers.

* Example 1: Conversion Error (no Number)
**********************************************************************

    CONSTANTS c_text TYPE string VALUE 'ABC'.
*    CONSTANTS c_text TYPE string VALUE '123'.

    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 1: Conversion Error` ).
    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).

    TRY.
        result = c_text.
        out->write( |Converted content is { result }|  ).
      CATCH cx_sy_conversion_no_number.
        out->write( |Error: { c_text } is not a number!| ).
    ENDTRY.

* Example 2: Division by Zero
**********************************************************************

    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 0.
*    CONSTANTS c_number TYPE i VALUE 7.

    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 2: Division by Zero` ).
    out->write(  `---------------------------` ).

    TRY.
        result = 100 / c_number.
        out->write( |100 divided by { c_number } equals { result }| ).
      CATCH cx_sy_zerodivide.
        out->write(  `Error: Division by zero is not defined!` ).
    ENDTRY.

* Example 3: Itab Error (Line Not Found)
**********************************************************************

    CONSTANTS c_index TYPE i VALUE 2.
*    CONSTANTS c_index TYPE i VALUE 1.

    out->write(  `-------------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 3: Line Not Found` ).
    out->write(  `-------------------------` ).

    TRY.
        result = numbers[ c_index ].
        out->write( |Content of row { c_index } equals { result }| ).
      CATCH cx_sy_itab_line_not_found.
        out->write(  `Error: Itab has less than { c_index } rows!` ).
    ENDTRY.


* Example 4: Combination of Different Exceptions
**********************************************************************
*    CONSTANTS c_char TYPE c LENGTH 1 VALUE 'X'.
*    CONSTANTS c_char TYPE c length 1 value '0'.
    CONSTANTS c_char TYPE c LENGTH 1 VALUE '1'.
*    CONSTANTS c_char TYPE c length 1 value '2'.

    out->write(  `----------------------` ).
    out->write(  `Example 4: Combination` ).
    out->write(  `----------------------` ).

    TRY.
        result = numbers[ 2 / c_char ].
        out->write( |Result: { result } | ).
      CATCH cx_sy_zerodivide.
        out->write( `Error: Division by zero is not defined`  ).
      CATCH cx_sy_conversion_no_number.
        out->write( |Error: { c_char } is not a number! | ).
      CATCH cx_sy_itab_line_not_found.
        out->write( |Error: Itab contains less than { 2 / c_char } rows| ).
    ENDTRY.
    Copy code
  3. Press CTRL + F3 to activate the class and F9 to execute it as a console app.
  4. Analyze the console output. Play around with the source code to get familiar with the concept:
    • Comment the exception handling to make the system raise a runtime error.
    • Change the values of constants c_number, c_text, c_index, and c_charin a way that no exceptions are raised.

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