ABAP_to_the_Future

Recent Code Inspector Enhancements 4.3
numbers. Each of these numbers corresponds to the support stack in which the
functionality was added, and the order of the numbers indicates whether we’re
talking about SAP NetWeaver 7.02, SAP NetWeaver 7.31, or SAP NetWeaver 7.4.
So, for example, “12/5/2” means that the check becomes available in SAP
NetWeaver 7.02 SP 12/SAP NetWeaver 7.31 SP 5/SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP 2. The
checks are sorted by the order in which they become available—oldest first.
4.3.1 Unsecure FOR ALL ENTRIES (12/5/2)
As you’ve probably experienced yourself, there’s a bug in SAP that’s particularly
annoying to programmers: If you us e an empty internal table in a FOR ALL
ENTRIES database query, then instead of returning noth ing, a full table scan
occurs. This is counter intuitive. If I gave you an empty list and then said “bring
me everything on this list,” you would give me nothing rather than trying to get
everything in the world to give to me. Nonetheless, this is how the ABAP system
responds. For a long time, SAP used the common software vendor trick of saying
that if you document a bug then it is no longer a bug. Although they still have not
fixed this, there is now a static code check to alert you to cases in which you have
forgotten to check for an empty table.
Listing 4.2 shows an example which has not tested if a table is empty before performing
a FOR ALL ENTRIES selection.
DATA: lt_monsters TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ztvc_monsters,
lt_selections TYPE RANGE OF zde_monster_number.
SELECT *
FROM ztvc_monsters
INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF TABLE lt_monsters
FOR ALL ENTRIES IN lt_selections
WHERE monster_number = lt_selections-low.
Listing 4.2 No Empty Table Check
In order to fix this problem and do a proper static code check, you have to make
sure that the requisite check is active in your default Code Inspector variant. To
do this, select the Unsecure use of FOR ALL ENTRIES checkbox, as shown in Figure
4.16.
As you can see in Figure 4.17, this problem is now picked up by the Code Inspector.
Make a little change to your program, as in Listing 4.3, in order to check
whether or not the internal table of selection criteria is empty.
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