ABAP_to_the_Future

Database Access 2.1
lower the sanity, the higher the ratio. Listing 2.3 shows what would have been
done prior to ABAP 7.4.
"Before
DATA: ld_converted_strength TYPE fltp,
ld_converted_sanity TYPE fltp.
SELECT monster_name monster_number strength sanity
FROM zt_monsters
INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF lt_monsters.
LOOP AT lt_monsters ASSIGNING <ls_monsters>.
ld_converted_strength = <ls_monsters>-strength.
ld_converted_sanity = <ls_monsters>-sanity.
<ls_monsters>-scary_ratio =
ld_converted_strength / ld_converted_sanity.
ENDLOOP.
Listing 2.3 Operations Inside SQL Statements: Before
However, as of ABAP 7.4, it’s now po ssible to perform these operations within
the SQL query, as shown in Listing 2.4.
SELECT monster_name, monster_number
CAST( strength AS fltp ) / CAST( sanity AS fltp )
AS scary_ratio
FROM zt_monsters
WHERE monster_number = @ld_monster_number
INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF @lt_monsters.
Listing 2.4 Operations Inside SQL Statements: After
As you can see, the example also included some type conversions. This saves you
from declaring two helper variables and more importantly from having to loop
over the internal table performing a calculation on each line.
Moreover, if you’re not interested in the strength and sanity on their own and
only care about the ratio, you can have two fewer fields in your internal table
(which you would have to expend extra effort to declare as “technical” in an ALV
report), and less information will be sent back from the database to the application
server (the ratio as opposed to strength and sanity). The less often such data
gets sent, the faster the program runs.
2.1.2 Buffering Improvements
One of the tasks I most enjoy is going through the ST05 trace for a program and
finding out that by making some minor changes I can take advantage of the table
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