ABAP Mesh in 740: Connect your internal table as BO node association

ABAP Mesh is also a new feature in 740. Let’s use an example to demonstrate how it works:

I have defined two types for developers and managers. developer type has a field manager which points to his manager, while manager type does not have any reference to his managing employee.

types: begin of t_manager,
         name     type char10,
         salary   type int4,
       end of t_manager,
       tt_manager type sorted table of t_manager with unique key name.
types: begin of t_developer,
         name     type char10,
         salary   type int4,
         manager TYPE char10,
       end of t_developer,
       tt_developer type sorted table of t_developer with unique key name.

I also use the new grammar – inline data declaration to fill developer and manager table. So far nothing special.

DATA: lt_developer TYPE tt_developer,
         lt_manager TYPE tt_manager.

   DATA(Jerry) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'Jerry' salary = 1000 manager = 'Jason' ).

   DATA(Tom) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'Tom' salary = 2000 manager = 'Jason' ).

   DATA(Bob) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'Bob' salary = 2100 manager = 'Jason' ).

   DATA(Jack) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'Jack' salary = 1000 manager = 'Thomas' ).

   DATA(David) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'David' salary = 2000 manager = 'Thomas' ).

   DATA(John) = VALUE t_developer( name = 'John' salary = 2100 manager = 'Thomas' ).

   DATA(Jason) = VALUE t_manager( name = 'Jason' salary = 3000 ).

   DATA(Thomas) = VALUE t_manager( name = 'Thomas' salary = 3200 ).

   INSERT Jerry INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT Tom INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT Bob INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT Jack INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT David INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT John INTO TABLE lt_developer.

   INSERT Jason INTO TABLE lt_manager.

   INSERT Thomas INTO TABLE lt_manager.

Now I define one ABAP mesh t_team with two component managers and developers. With association ‘my_employee’, I connect the internal table managers to developers, so that I could easily find all developers of a given manager. The association ‘my_manager’ just enables the connection in opposite direction: find out the manager of a given developer.

You can compare how I find Jerry’s manager and find all developers whose manager are Thomas using new ABAP mesh and the traditional way.

The result are exactly the same.

DATA ls_sflight TYPE sflight.
DATA lt_sflight TYPE TABLE OF sflight.
LOOP AT lt_sflight INTO ls_sflight WHERE connid = 'Foo'.
ENDLOOP.
WRITE / sy-subrc.
TRY.
ls_sflight = lt_sflight[ connid = 'Foo' ].
CATCH cx_sy_itab_line_not_found.
WRITE / |Line not found exception.|.
ENDTRY.

types: begin of mesh ty_rep_mesh2, agr_agrs type t_agr_agrs association parent_to_child to agr_1252 on agr_name = child_agr , agr_1252 type t_agr_1252, end of mesh ty_rep_mesh2. data: lt_agr_agrs type t_agr_agrs, lt_agr_1252 type t_agr_1252. data t_mesh2 type ty_rep_mesh2. start-of-selection. select * from agr_agrs into table lt_agr_agrs where agr_name = 'MYSPECIFICROLE'. select * from agr_1252 into table lt_agr_1252 for all entries in lt_agr_agrs where agr_name = lt_agr_agrs-child_agr. t_mesh2 = value #( agr_1252 = lt_agr_1252[] agr_agrs = lt_agr_agrs[] ). data test type t_agr_1252. data test3 type t_agr_1252. data test2 type t_agr_agrs. "No dump try. test = value #( for val in t_mesh2-agr_agrs ( cond #( when line_index( t_mesh2-agr_1252[ agr_name = val-child_agr ] ) > 0: then t_mesh2-agr_agrs\parent_to_child[ t_mesh2-agr_agrs[ child_agr = val-child_agr ] ] ) ) ). catch cx_sy_itab_line_not_found into data(ls_root). endtry. try. test = value #( for val in t_mesh2-agr_agrs ( t_mesh2-agr_agrs\parent_to_child[ t_mesh2-agr_agrs[ child_agr = val-child_agr ] ] ) ). catch cx_sy_itab_line_not_found into ls_root. endtry. try. test2 = value #( for val in t_mesh2-agr_agrs ( val ) ). catch cx_sy_itab_line_not_found into ls_root. endtry. loop at t_mesh2-agr_agrs into data(ls_info). try. data(ls_data) = t_mesh2-agr_agrs\parent_to_child[ t_mesh2-agr_agrs[ child_agr = ls_info-child_agr ] ]. catch cx_sy_itab_line_not_found into ls_root. endtry. endloop.

6 Comments

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Henry J Law December 2, 2014 at 1:50 am

Like!

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Wilbert Sison March 12, 2015 at 9:31 pm

nice 🙂

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Nadeem Ismail March 17, 2015 at 9:37 am

Excellent example!!

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Tim Jörgen May 20, 2015 at 12:20 pm

Why did you decide to throw an exception when you try to read invalid entries? I would expect an empty row instead of raising cx_sy_itab_line_not_found. Also why does the LOOP AT command implicitly catch this exception? This does not feel completely coherent.

Consider this example with your sample data:

WRITE / |––– Test not found –––|.

LOOP AT ls_crm_team–developers\my_manager[ VALUE #( manager = ‘Foo’ ) ] ASSIGNING FIELD–SYMBOL(<line3>).
   WRITE / |Line found loop { <line3>–name }|.
ENDLOOP.

TRY.
     DATA(line_not_exist) = ls_crm_team–developers\my_manager[ VALUE #( manager = ‘Foo’ ) ].
     WRITE / |Line found direct { line_not_exist–name }|.
   CATCH cx_sy_itab_line_not_found.
     WRITE / |Line not found exception.|.
ENDTRY.

This gives the following result:

Test not found

Line not found exception.

With kind regards,

Tim

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1. Welf Walter May 26, 2015 at 9:18 am
  Hi Tim,
  
  on the first look, this might look confusing. But that behaviour is exactly the same as it is without using a mesh:
  
  Looping trough a table with no matching line leads to a sy-subrc=4
  
  Accessing a line in a table with a non-matching key leads to exception CX_SY_ITAB_LINE_NOT_FOUND
  
  Example:
  
  DATA ls_sflight TYPE sflight.
  
  DATA lt_sflight TYPE TABLE OF sflight.
  
  LOOP AT lt_sflight INTO ls_sflight WHERE connid = 'Foo'.
  
  ENDLOOP.
  
  WRITE / sy-subrc.
  
  TRY.
  
  ls_sflight = lt_sflight[ connid = 'Foo' ].
  
  CATCH cx_sy_itab_line_not_found.
  
  WRITE / |Line not found exception.|.
  
  ENDTRY.
  
  With regards,
  
  Welf
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jonathan collin March 24, 2017 at 1:34 pm

Hi,

i’m agree with Tim but in another context, if I use the FOR IN expression I should have the same result than the LOOP AT WHERE if I take your example:

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