topic Re: Delete adjacent duplicates comparing all fields. Sorting clarififcation in Application Development and Automation Discussions

Delete adjacent duplicates comparing all fields. Sorting clarififcation

former_member450822 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 08:02:10 GMT

Hi All,

When we use Delete adjacent duplicates comparing all fields, do we need to sort table with all fields ? or "Sort Itab" will be suffiecient .

Regards,

Sri

Re: Delete adjacent duplicates comparing all fields. Sorting clarififcation

former_member199306 — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:28:41 GMT

Hi,

generally we short table with key fields, then we delete adjacent duplicates comparing those fileds

like sort EKPO by EBELN EBELP

Regards,

Bhupendra

Re: Delete adjacent duplicates comparing all fields. Sorting clarififcation

Sandra_Rossi — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:12:29 GMT

Just press F1 on SORT and click on further hyperlinks.

Documentation 7.53 of SORT:

If no explicit sort key is entered using the addition BY, the internal table itab is sorted by the primary table key.
It is best to specify an explicit sort key behind BY, if possible. An implicit sort behind the primary table key (which can itself, in standard tables, be defined implicitly as a standard key) makes a program difficult to understand and possibly unpredictable.

Documentation of primary table key:

either a self-defined key or the standard key

Documentation of standard key:

... whose key fields (if the row type is structured) are all table fields with character-like data types and byte-like data types.

If you use DELETE ADJACENT DUPLICATES FROM itab COMPARING ALL FIELDS, it can be preceded with SORT and the pseudo component table_line equivalent to ALL FIELDS (I can't find it in the documentation):

SORT itab BY table_line.