ABAP_to_the_Future

Database Access 2.1
account of secondary indexes could be described as a passive improvement; if you
had SELECT statements on an indexed field that previously bypassed the buffer,
then as of release 7.4 your code will speed up without you having to lift a finger—
and a lot of standard SAP code will speed up as well.
Another passive example of buffering improvements in ABAP 7.4 is that up until
now you could not perform a FOR ALL ENTRIES on a buffered table, even if you
used the primary key, without having to go to the database; you had to do a loop
of SELECT SINGLES and then get warned about doing SELECTS in a loop by the
extended syntax check. This is now a thin g of the past. Because the data is all in
memory, the query treats the FOR ALL ENTRIES as a loop of SELECT SINGLES, and
thus database access is totally avoided. As an example, a lot of standard SAP
reports do a FOR ALL ENTRIES on buffered table SETLEAF, which relates to the
profit center hierarchy. Under a 7.4 environment, all such standard programs will
run much faster.
2.1.3 Creating while Reading
In Chapter 10 of this book, you will learn about CL_SALV_TABLE and how it is
clever enough to look at the definition of your internal table and turn that definition
into an ALV grid without you having to manually define each column again.
ABAP 7.4 has taken this one step further by doing away with the need to perform
the data declaration for the internal table in the first place.
To illustrate what this means, look at the following example. Say that you want a
list of all the monsters named Fred. Trad itionally, you would go about this as
shown in Listing 2.5.
TYPES: BEGIN OF l_typ_monsters,
monster_name TYPE zt_monsters-monster_name,
monster_number TYPE zt_monsters-monster_number,
sanity TYPE zt_monsters-sanity,
END OF l_typ_monsters.
DATA: lt_monsters TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF l_typ_monsters.
SELECT monster_name monster_number sanity
FROM zt_monsters
INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF TABLE lt_monsters
WHERE monster_name = 'FRED'.
Listing 2.5 List of All Monsters Named Fred
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