Handling Overflow of Characters in <Ustrd> Tag During EBS File Processing

[nejla]

Dear SAP Community,

I have a question regarding the processing of EBS files using program FF_5. In the case of the <Ustrd> tag, which typically holds reference information, the tag is limited to 140 characters. However, if the content exceeds this limit and contains more than 140 characters, I would like to know how SAP handles this scenario.

• Does SAP FF_5 read only the first 140 characters and ignore the rest, or is there any way for SAP to process the additional characters?
• If SAP does ignore the additional characters, what happens to them? Are they lost, or is there any functionality in place to capture the overflow (for example, moving the extra text to another field or row)?

Any insights or recommendations for handling this situation would be greatly appreciated.

[Edrilan_Berisha]

Hi nejla,

so in general what happens in an overflow case, when external files are imported:

The rest is cut off and "lost".

If the data element can only hold 140 characters, the other stuff would not be stored anywhere.

In general in such a case, my recommendation would be to use payment advices and enter the information of those invoices etc. there. I guess that is the reason why you want to have all information also visible there, because you most likely have there more than just 1-2 invoice reference numbers which are mentioned.

For such cases we have the payment advice process. Because the payment advices can contain even more information and would make it possible for you to clear with one payment transaction hundreds of invoices.

Other than that I have currently nothing else which would help you. But I would like to ask some questions back:

Does this happen often in your business? What release are you on?

Best,

Edrilan Berisha