ABAP_to_the_Future

Internal Tables 2.6
a traditional READ TABLE xyz INTO ls_abc when the read failed. An example of this
is shown in Listing 2.50.
zcl_bc_output( |{ ld_monster_name }’s Monster Number is { lt_monsters[
monster_name = ld_monster_name ]-monster_number OPTIONAL }| ).
zcl_bc_output( |{ ld_monster_name }’s Monster Number is { lt_monsters[
monster_name = ld_monster_name ]-monster_number DEFAULT ‘999999’ }| ).
Listing 2.50 OPTIONAL
The addition DEFAULT fills in a hard-coded value wh en the read fails. Then, you
can check if the read failed by comparing the result with that hard-coded value in
the same way you would if SY-SUBRC was 4 when checking if a traditional read on
an internal table succeeded.
2.6.4 CORRESPONDING for Normal Internal Tables
You no doubt use the ABAP keyword MOVE-CORRESPONDING a lot, moving variable
values from one structure to another.
Warning: Houston, We Have a Problem
In some standard SAP documentation, you are advised never to use MOVE-CORRESPOND-
ING at all, most likely to avoid the problem of moving strings into number fields, highlighted
at the start of this section. However, if you do use it, then the functionality discussed
here should be of help to you.
New in 7.4 is a constructor operator called CORRESPONDING without the word MOVE
in front. This operator takes moving data between two internal tables to a whole
new level. Say that you have two internal tables full of monster-related data, but
they are defined with a different set of columns. What you want to do is copy
over the fields with the same names from one table to the other, with two exceptions:
왘 You do not want to copy the EVILNESS value from one table to the other, even
though both tables have an EVILNESS column.
왘 You want to copy the column named MOST_PEASANTS_SCARED from one table
into a similar column called PEOPLE_SCARED in the second table.
Prior to 7.4, you would declare a bunch of helper variables to store the work areas
of the two tables, and then loop through the first table, moving everything from
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