topic Re: append returning lines in Application Development and Automation Discussions

append returning lines

Former Member — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:02:10 GMT

Hi ABAP-Experts,

i wonder if there is a better way of appending return lines to a internal table.
I have a lot of methods returning a bapiret2 tables and one main return table.

Everytime i call one of those methods i have to do this:

DATA: lt_return_temp type bapiret2_t.
lt_return_temp = zcl_class=>method().
APPEND LINES OF lt_return_temp TO rt_return.

Is there a way to write it more inline?

Something like that:

append lines of { fill_zdata( EXPORTING is_idoc_data = <s_idoc_data> CHANGING cs_customer = ls_customer ) } to rt_return.

Regards

Fabian

Re: append returning lines

Softwaris — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:00:31 GMT

This might not completely answer your question but you could start with changing it to an inline data declaration which saves you at least one line 🙂

DATA(lt_return_temp) = zcl_class=>method().
APPEND LINES OF lt_return_temp TO rt_return.

Now for your append function, I don't think there is such an ABAP expression, but I could be wrong.

Re: append returning lines

pokrakam — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:19:48 GMT

data(messages) = thingy->do_stuff( ). 
append lines of thingy->do_more_stuff( ) to messages.

Re: append returning lines

Tomas_Buryanek — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:32:03 GMT

Nice 🙂 I did not know that APPEND LINES supports "functional operand".

Re: append returning lines

Softwaris — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:35:42 GMT

Thanks for sharing. How about :

append lines of thingy->do_more_stuff() to DATA(messages).

Does that work? (Since I'm currently not on a SAP system)...

Re: append returning lines

retired_member — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:52:27 GMT

The following should work:

APPEND LINES OF zcl_class=>method( ) TO rt_return.

But even better:

rt_return = VALUE #( ( LINES OF zcl_class=>method( ) ) ).

Re: append returning lines

ChristianGnter — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:19:22 GMT

Shouldn't it be this?

    rt_return = value #( base rt_return ( lines of  zcl_class=>method( ) ) ).

Re: append returning lines

retired_member — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:48:02 GMT

Depending on the use case sure ...

Re: append returning lines

retired_member — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:39:40 GMT

If you read the documentation for LINES OF, you see, that there is a functional operand position behind.

Re: append returning lines

Former Member — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 13:19:34 GMT

THANKS.

append lines of thingy->do_more_stuff()tomessages.

rt_return = value #( base rt_return ( lines of  zcl_class=>method( ) ) ).

worked for me. (I thought i already tried "append lines of..". Sorry.)

I think i should take a deeper look at "value #".

Thank you all for your input and help.

Regards

Fabian

Re: append returning lines

pokrakam — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:30:43 GMT

The choice comes down to what is clear and easy to read.

As an aside, I used to use messages as a returning parameter, but these days I prefer not to. Technically it’s correct and it works, but semantically having an assignment makes the log the ‘focus’ of the statement, whereas it’s really a by-product.

I think an exporting parameter puts the focus back onto what’s being executed and makes it easy for a someone to understand straight away with a quick skim of the code. As there will be a few lines, performance is not a significant factor either, so I would write it as:

thingy->do_stuff( exporting messages = data(messages) ).

thingy->do_whatever( exporting messages = data(add_messages) ).
append lines of add_messages to messages.

What would be nice (sorry can’t un-code-format this) is an append receiver function:
thingy->do_more_stuff( exporting messages = append(messages) ).

Re: append returning lines

Former Member — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 15:27:33 GMT

An append receiver would be nice but i don´t think it´s possible. Or is it?

Re: append returning lines

pokrakam — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 15:39:09 GMT

No, there is no such thing in ABAP. It should be technically feasible to use a function in a writer position as an implicit receiver of whatever is being written to it. It's basically what an inline declaration does.

Maybe it will happen one day, who knows what the boys and girls in Walldorf are cooking up...