ABAP_to_the_Future

2
New Language Features in ABAP 7.4
INTO CORRESPONDING FIELDS OF ls_delivery_header
WHERE vbeln = ld_delivery_number.
Listing 2.20 Removing Leading Zeroes via a Formatting Option
When using the method shown in Listing 2.20, you no longer have to add the
leading zeroes back—as they were never actually removed from the delivery variable
in the first place.
2.4 Calling Functions
Often, you have to jump through hoops to play around with the variables in your
programs before you can call other meth ods or functions. Luckily for you, this
only gets easier over time. This section will discuss the new ABAP functionalities
that make calling functions much easier than it has been in the past.
2.4.1 Method Chaining
7.02 Feature
This feature came about with ABAP 7.02, but is discussed here because it’s little known.
All through this chapter, you have been reading about getting rid of data declarations.
Now, you’ll turn to the case in which you have dozens of helper variables,
all storing intermediate steps, and you stor e the result of one method call for a
short time solely for the purpose of passing that value into another method call.
In traditional programming terms, such variables are called “tramp data,” because
they are only there to pass on values from one place to another, as in the song
“that’s why the data is a tramp.”
With the advent of release 7.02, a new concept called method chaining was born,
whereby you can directly pass the result of one method into the input parameter
of another method without the need for a helper variable. Normally, you would
declare a helper variable, fill it with th e result of a method call, and pass that
helper variable into another method, as in Listing 2.21.
CATCH zcx_excel INTO lo_exception.
ld_helper = lo_exception->get_text( ).
zcl_bc_screen_message=>output( ld_helper ).
Listing 2.21 Helper Variable
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