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Author's profile photo Ram Bandla

SAP ABAP Development Tools(ADT) – Productive Short Cuts

Introduction


ABAP Development Tools (ADT) has totally replaced SE80 for me. On-premise or SAP BTP ABAP Environment, ADT increases productivity with several developer assisting features and short cuts. Below are some of the short cuts that I frequently refer to.

 

Keyboard Shortcuts

 

Open Object/GUI

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + Shift + A Open development object
Ctrl + 6 Start GUI independently of development object
Alt + F8 Run ABAP Development object as ABAP Application in GUI Useful to open a transaction in GUI in one step.

 

ABAP Object editing

 

Indent/Syntax check/Activation

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Shift + F1 Indent
Ctrl + F2 Syntax Check
Ctrl + F3 Activate

 

Unlock Object

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + U Unlock object

 

Comments

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctlr + < Add comment
Ctlr + > Remove comment
Ctrl + 7 Comments/Uncomments selected lines

 

Line Modification

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + D Deletes the current line No selection required
Alt + Up/Down Moves the current line up or down No selection required

Delete Unused variables

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Alt + U Delete unused variables(All)
Alt + Shift + U Delete unused variables(Selection)

Extract/Rename

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Alt + Shift + M Extract Method
Alt + Shift + R Rename

Keyword/Code completion

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Tab To select the initial suggestion of theĀ  Keyword or code completion suggestion
Ctrl + Space To get more suggestions from the Keyword or code completion suggestion(includes suggestions from the Static Code Templates)
Shift + Enter To insert the full signature of the code completion suggestion Useful for Function Modules, Class Methods.
Enter To insert only the name of the selected item from the code completion suggestion

Quick Fix

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + 1 Quick fix suggestions
Ctrl + 2 In file Quick fix

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + O Quick Outline
Ctrl + T Quick Type Hierarchy
F2 signature of a variable or method is displayed in the Code Element Information popup
F3 Navigates between the declaration and implementation of the selected object.
Alt + Left/Right Move forward or backward the navigation history

 

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + H ABAP Object search
Ctrl + Shift + G Where used

 

Compare

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + Alt + C Compare with Revision History(Released transports) or across ABAP Projects.

The Local History does not come up with this shortcut.

For compare with Local History use the context menu of the ABAP Object->Compare With->Local history.

ABAP Unit tests

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + Shift + F10 Execute ABAP unit tests

ABAP Test Cockpit(ATC)

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + Shift + F2 ABAP Test Cockpit(ATC)

ABAP Help

Short Cut

Function

Comments

F1 ABAP Help

Editor

Short Cut

Function

Comments

Ctrl + E Displays the list of all open editors You can select the one that you are interested in and switch to it by pressing Enter key.
Ctrl + F6 Displays the list all open editors and allows to switch between them as well. No need to press Enter key.

Ctrl + W Close single editor window

 

Annotations in dictionary declarations

Annotation

Function

Comments

@EndUserText End user text @EndUserText.label
@AbapCatalog ABAP related, example enhancementCategory, foreignKey etc.
@Semantics For quantity and currency fields

@Semantics.quantity.unitOfMeasure

@Semantics.amount.currencyCode

 

ABAP Template variables

 

Standard

Variable

Description

Cursor Specifies the cursor position after leaving template edit mode.
Date Equates to the current date.
Dollar Equates to the dollar symbol ($).
line_selection Equates to the content of all currently selected lines.
Time Equates to the current time.
word_selection Equates to the content of the currently selected text.
Year Equates to the current year.

ABAP Specific

Variable

Description

enclosing_object

Equates to the name of the development object

displayed in the current editor, such as

the name of a class or include program.

enclosing_package Equates to the package, which the development object belongs to.
system_id Equates to the ABAP System ID.
User Equates to the name of the user that is currently logged in to the ABAP system.

 

Your own short cuts

You got the option to change any of the short cuts to your preferred ones.

Window -> Preferences -> General -> Keys

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      2 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Ram Bandla
      Ram Bandla
      Blog Post Author

      https://blogs.sap.com/2021/07/16/abap-adt-frequently-used-short-cuts/

      Author's profile photo Joachim Rees
      Joachim Rees

      Very nice reference on AdT short cuts, thanks a lot!