1. ABAP Course
Chapter 4 – Database accesses
Lecturer: André Bögelsack, UCC Technische Universität München
Author: Valentin Nicolescu, André Bögelsack
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3. Agenda
1. Data dictionary
2. SAP flight example
3. Database operations in SAP
4. SAP OpenSQL
5. Types of database changes
6. Types of entry help
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4. Data dictionary
• Data dictionary = global directory for data types
• Assignment of help texts and explanations for data types in
different languages
• ERM can be shown as a figure automatically
• Most important objects: structure, table, data element and
domain
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5. Data dictionary
Domain ZY_ID INT4 Data type
Data element ZY_ID ZZ_ID
Field ZY_ID ZZ_ID
Structure Field
Table Field
Field
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6. Data dictionary
• Menu path: Tools • ABAP Workbench • Development •
Dictionary
• TA SE11
• View, edit, delete, create tables, data types, domains definitions
etc.
• Tables and views from the ABAP dictionary represent tables and
views from the database
• User interface are generated automatically when changing views,
tables etc.
• Table may be changed after they are created without losing data
• SAP tables may be extended by APPEND structures
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7. Data browser
• Menu path: Tools • ABAP Workbench • Overview • Data
Browser
• TA SE16
• View table content
• Add new entries to tables when adding is permitted for the table
• Browse the entry help table content
• Copy table content to transport request
• Download table content
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8. Overview about all objects
• Database table
• View
• Data type
– Data element
– Structure
– Database table
– Table types
– Views
– Class / interface
• Type group
• Domain
• Search help
• Lock object
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9. Visualization
• Foreign key relationships can be visualized in data dictionary
• Table SFLIGHT
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10. SAP flight example
• Created and maintained by SAP to demonstrate database
operations
• Contains exercise data for airline, flight connection number, flight
date, airfare etc.
• Report for data generation:
S_FLIGHT_MODEL_DATA_GENERATION
• SAP trainings, examples from books build refer to the flight
example
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11. SAP flight example – table structure
Connection Flight Reservation Plane
SPFLI SFLIGHT SBOOK SAPLANE
MANDT MANDT MANDT MANDT
CARRID CARRID CARRID PLANETYPE
CONNID CONNID CONNID SEATSMAX
AIRPFROM FLDATE FLDATE TANKCAP
AIRPTO SEATSMAX BOOKID CAP_UNIT
CITYFROM SEATSOCC CUSTOMID WEIGHT
CITYTO PRICE LUGGWEIGH WIE_UNIT
COUNTRYFR CURRENCY WUNIT OP_SPEED
COUNTRYTO PLANETYPE CANCELLED SPEED_UNIT
… … … …
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12. SAP OpenSQL
• Independent from database
Application Server Database Server
ABAP-Interpreter DB-Interface SQL-Database
Select * from OpenSQL Native SQL
DB data DB data
Exec SQL. Native SQL
Select * from Data
End Exec. DB data
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13. OpenSQL instructions
• Select:
– SELECT / SELECT SINGLE
– * / field 1 ..field n /
– FROM table / view
– INTO structure / internal table
– WHERE condition
• Aggregation:
– MAX, MIN, AVG
– SUM, COUNT
• Joins:
– Left outer join
– Inner join
– View
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14. Procedure for database access
General:
• Be specific to decrease the load on the database
• Access to database takes 10,000 time longer than access to buffers
• Avoid table scans, use indexes
Procedure:
1. Read database data into internal tables
• Internal tables are tables for holding data during runtime
2. Change data per row
• Use workareas to hold one row of the table and change data in the
workarea
3. Write changes back to database
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15. Procedure for database access
Internal tables and workareas:
wa_spfli
Workarea • Use the workarea to modify
LH 0400 (one row) one data set
it_spfli
Internal table • Use the internal table to store
AA 0017 (selected content) the selected database content
temporarily
LH 0400 • Internal tables are deleted
after program is finished
Database Database table • Use the database to read/write
(whole content) data
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16. Types of database changes
Modify instruction:
MODIFY <dbtable> [CLIENT SPECIFIED] FROM <workarea>.
MODIFY <dbtable> [CLIENT SPECIFIED] FROM TABLE
<internaltable>
• Modify = Update – the command updates the database table if
the database table already contains dataset
• Modify = Insert – the command inserts new datasets into the
database table
Delete instruction:
DELETE FROM <dbtable> WHERE [SQL statement].
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17. Entry help
• Entry help uses a table in the background
• Predefined entry help for a table
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