ABAP_to_the_Future

11
ABAP2XLSX
11.1.3 Creating XLSX Files Using ABAP
At a very high level, the process for crea ting XLSX files using ABAP is incredibly
simplistic, as simplistic as Jock McSi mplistic the simplistic Scotsman, winner of
the all-Scotland “being simplistic” contest. This process is depicted in Figure 11.6.
Create Excel Object
Add Desired
Attributes
Convert to XML
Download/Email/
Open in Place
Figure 11.6 High-Level ABAP2XLSX Process Flow
Each of the steps in the process are discussed in more detail next.
Creating the Excel Object
The first step in the process flow is to create an Excel object. (Section 11.2.1 adds
another step at the start of the process flow: taking an existing SAP report object
and converting it into an Excel object. However, for now you will start by creating
the Excel object from scratch.) In OO programming, classes represent realworld
objects, and in this case you have a class that is a representation of the realworld
object that is an Excel spreadshee t. Because building up an XML structure
manually can be quite cumbersome, workin g with an instance of such a class is
far easier.
A spreadsheet consists of one or more worksheets, so after you create your Excel
object you have to specify which worksheet you’re talking about. Naturally, the
default is the first worksheet, so that is the active one. In most spreadsheets, you
only have one worksheet. The code for creating the Excel object and navigating to
the first worksheet is shown in Listing 11.1.
DATA: lo_excel TYPE REF TO zcl_excel,
lo_worksheet TYPE REF TO zcl_excel_worksheet.
CREATE OBJECT lo_excel.
lo_worksheet = lo_excel->get_active_worksheet( ).
Listing 11.1 Creating the Excel Object and Navigating to the First Worksheet
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