Do you know your SE16N?

[jrg_wulf]

Probably, this does not exactly belong here, but i found no better place for it.

Several people i know(me included) like to use TA SE16N for a quick glance at table data or as a means of preselection e.g.  for personnel data.

Something like a query but without the hassle of building one.

It's really great, as long as you only need data from a single table AND all selection criteria are AND related. (Or so I thought)

One problem, I frequently ran into, is when you want to evaluate  a "nested" table. That is a table that has multiple  fields in its structure, basically for the same data, representing a limited table in maintenance view.

For example infotype tables in HR are often built like that and the problem is always, that you do not know, in which field (nnnn01, nnnn02, …) to look for a certain value.

Now quite I recently figured out, that SE16N can do that and I found it worth sharing.

Let's assume, you  need to know all employee, that have a certain date type (say 18) in infotype 41, in a specific time interval, but you have no idea, in which date type column (DAR01, DAR02,…)  it is to be found.

In the past, I would have run several selections, each one with a different DARxx targeted to my date type and then would have assembled the results in Excel.

This is how to do it now

1. Call TA Se16N with table PA0041
2. Fill in the first set of selection criteria (DAR01 / DAT01)
3. Change to Technical View On (SHIFT+F11 or right-click for context menu)
   
4. Select Multiple entry (Cntrl+F9 or right-click for context menu or More button in the top)
   
   Youwill be rewarded with an additional, empty selection screen
5. Fill in your selection criteria and then press Next Entry (F5 Or Right Arrow in the bottom)
   You get a new empty selection screen. Note the number shown in the top line, it will increase as you circle through your  value sets.
6. Repeat
7. When you're through with typing in your values in every possible column, press F8 to get back to your starting selection.
   The only hint, that there are additional select criteria, is the more button in the top, now showing the filled Icon.

The difference is  in the result. After executing  your selection, you will now receive all entries, that match either of your value sets. They are each linked by OR-relation.

Of course, the use of this feature is in no way limited to HR Infotype tables. It's just the most common use for me.

Wherever you need OR-related  sets of values for a SE16N Selection , this feature comes in handy.

Hope you'll enjoy it.

[p291102]

interesting

[matt]

SE16N is part of package WUSL, which I believe is only available in ECC (or R/3 as we old-timers know it).

Certainly, it isn't in my BW system. 😞

[jrg_wulf]

Hi Matt,

you have my empathy. Yes you're right. AFAIK it's only available an ECC. Nevertheless, for those who have it, it's worth knowing. Isn't it?

BR - Jörg

[SuhaSaha]

Hello Jörg,

It's nice that you blogged about it. I thought about blogging about it too, sometime ago :razz:

Anyway just to supplement to what has already been mentioned you can "always" turn on the "Technical view" but checking the following flag in SE16n settings.

Being a developer, I always like to keep the "technical view" on. SE16n settings are one of the points on my "to-do" list, when i get access to a new system :wink:

BR,

Suhas

[stefan_eisen]

Great! Thank you for sharing! Always was missing something like that, since i lost my SE16XXL!

[catherine_mckenna]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting and useful.

[Former Member]

Thank you for sharing. This will definitely be very useful. Appreciate it.

[Former Member]

Useful and handy feature! Thanks for sharing it.

[moazzam_ali]

I always use SE11 :smile:

[rosenberg_eitan]

Hi,

Do not despair you can DL my two bit worth of code .

SDB_ADBC - the program

For BW system I think you will appreciate the SUM function

Using native SQL .

Regards.

[rosenberg_eitan]

Another goodie .

Thanks.

[Former Member]

Hello THere!

Just to take advantage of the topic:

I think that by now, almost every developer knows about the somewhat "hidden command" &SAP_EDIT entered on the SAPGUI command line  at the first screen of SE16N, AFTER YOU SPECIFY THE TABLE NAME TO BE DISPLAYED, to unlock table maintenance buttons (insert/modify/delete) on the result ALV, even if those buttons were not supposed to be there (for system tables, or depending on the table delivery class, for example).

But there's a SAP NOTE that disables this &SAP_EDIT command, leaving all of us in the cold regarding changing any table values uaing SE16N.

Here is a &SAP_EDIT substitute trick:

1) In the same first screen of SE16N, you enter /H followed by ENTER to call the debug,;

2) When in debug, display the name of variables GD-EDIT e GD-SAPEDIT.and change the value of both variables form space to X;

3) Hit F8 key to exit debug and return to SE16N;

4) Now, when you choose to display lines from a table in SE16N, you'll see the insert/modify/delete buttons for the table, even if &SAP_EDIT is not working anymore.

If you leave transaction SE16N and enters it again, you'll have to repeat the steps above.

I Hope this helps the &SAP_EDIT orphans, rsrsrs.

Regards,

Lino

[Former Member]

Hi,

Interesting article.  I came to know something new in regularly used transaction.  Thanks for sharing.

Warm regards,

Sridhar

[former_member182877]

Wonderful tips in one blog on SE16N!  Thanks for Sharing!

Cheers,

Kripa Rangachari.

[jrg_wulf]

Hi Suhas,

personally, i prefer the "half" technical view. That is, only the technical column names.

It's fast enough for me, to switch on demand and otherwise leave the screen lean.

BR - Jörg

[jrg_wulf]

Thanks Stefan,

Was the same with me. It was always a bit unsatisfactory, to have such a great device, yet so limited.

[Former Member]

Very useful

[former_member197699]

Really useful. Thank you for sharing, Jörg.

Regards

Alessio

[PeterJonker]

Or try Function Module SE16N_INTERFACE and place an X in EDIT and SAPEDIT. Often this function module still works after &SAP_EDIT has been disabled.

[jrg_wulf]

Nice one - but a bit more complex.

BTW, using FM SE16n_Interface even enables you to make a cross-client select.

You just have to set the parameters:

I_CLNT_SPEZ

I_CLNT_DEP

to 'X' and supply appropriate contents in table IT_SELFIELDS.

[jrg_wulf]

And another thing.

For all of you that miss the &sap_edit on their system, consider taking a look on these OSS-Notes:

0001446530

0001525586

0001588188

These will restore the functionality safely and properly.

[Former Member]

Thanks for sharing a additional functionality in regularly used transaction.

Interesting and Useful.

Regards

Amitkumar Somshetty

[Former Member]

Hi,

Are you sure that these notes help?

They are already installed in our SP, but it seems that variable ld_on in include LSE16NF10 subroutine FILL_SAP_EDIT is always false (initial).

Therefore, relevant source code (Selection from DB table se16n_edit) isn't executed.

[jrg_wulf]

Hi Shai,

basically yes, i am certain. I might however have forgotten to mention NOTE 1468636, which is of importance as well. :smile:

[Jelena_Perfiljeva]

It always makes me jittery when someone brings this up without a disclaimer about possible risks, but hopefully Basis/Security admins would be wise enought to take away this kind of authorization in PRD...

[jrg_wulf]

Yes Jelena,

you're right as right can be. That's exactly, why i posted the notes.

Since it is widely spread knowledge, you can hardly avoid someone messing around with it.

But then i prefer them, to do it as "intended" and not in the testframework of SE37 with unprotected FMs.

[mahesh_jagannath]

Thanks Jörg for this nice article. I have always used SE16N whenever I had to edit some data in a table. This has been a useful transaction for me in ECC. However this is not available in CRM systems. In CRM I will have to debug in order to do any changes to table data. It would be helpful for developers to have this in CRM too.

Regards,

Mahesh

[learnsap]

Interesting to know the functionality, thanks for sharing

[Aiolos]

thanks for sharing

[Former Member]

I understand your worries about that, but try to say that to an ABAPer who's in the GO-LIVE overnight job and has the need because acting like this could be the difference between project GO/NOGO...

In other words: It never hurts to know!

Now, having debug or se37 authorizations in PRD is another story!

[Former Member]

really good and thanks for sharing

[former_member201275]

cool, thx for sharing. cool advice as well in some of the comments. problem is i forget stuff faster than i learn! :sad:

[Former Member]

Well,

It might make the difference, but the note isn't released... :neutral:

[SuhaSaha]

Shai Sinai wrote:

Well,

It might make the difference, but the note isn't released... :neutral:

I get the same error too :sad:

May be Jörg has some special access :wink:

[jrg_wulf]

I don't know if i have special access, but i have downloaded and built in the note in october '13 in version 006.

[ged_hurst]

Hi all

It' worthwhile bearing in mind that RKSE16N_EDIT generally activates or deactivates the edit function.

[PeterJonker]

I do not have this report / transaction code in my system.

[ged_hurst]

I think it arrived with SAP Netweaver release 731

[jrg_wulf]

No,

look above at the 1. comment of matthew.billingham.

SE16N is to be found only in ERP System.

Sorry.

[Former Member]

Great stuffs !!

I regularly use SE16n but never thought these features are there !!

[Former Member]

thanks for sharing

[chngkhengkim]

Cool...thank for sharing !

[ronald_halmen]

The note is classified as pilot note. It means one has to open a customer incident on component CO-OM and ask for the specific customer number to be added to the list of pilot customers who can access this note. Afterwards, the correction instructions can be downloaded. Please note that these are modifications that will never be included into a SAP_APPL Support Package as the security risk is obvious.

[Former Member]

Nice one! Thanks for sharing!

[mraffel]

What an awesome hidden gem! Love it! Thanks for taking the time to share it!

[Prashant4]

Nice Blog,Thanks for Sharing.

[Former Member]

Good share mate, Thanks :smile:

[mahesh_madhavan]

Thanks Jorg. Very helpful. I never knew that the 'OR' option existed.

Cheers,

Mahesh

[former_member16553]

Thanks for sharing this. This is really very interesting and useful !!!!! :smile:

Cheers,

Girdhari

[Former Member]

Good one. lino.lopes tips on &SAP_EDIT workaround needs a mention too.

Regards,

Vasanth