Welcome Corner Discussions
Join the Welcome Corner discussion, where newcomers and community veterans are encouraged to introduce themselves, learn about others, and build their networks.
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Festkomma-Arithmetik in ABAP unter SAP S/4HANA: Was Sie wissen sollten

Fullstack_Dev
Explorer
0 Kudos
349

Fixed-point arithmetic is an important feature in ABAP programming, especially when it comes to calculating and processing decimal numbers. Under SAP S/4HANA, the significance of fixed-point arithmetic remains unchanged, continuing to be a key concept to ensure the accuracy of calculations in ABAP programs. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what fixed-point arithmetic is, how it works in SAP S/4HANA, and what specific considerations to keep in mind.

1. What is Fixed-Point Arithmetic in ABAP?

Fixed-point arithmetic is a calculation mode that ensures decimal numbers are processed with a fixed number of decimal places. In ABAP, this is especially important to avoid precision errors that could occur when performing numeric operations with floating-point numbers.

Fixed-point arithmetic can be enabled or disabled in an ABAP program. When enabled, numerical calculations maintain the defined number of decimal places, resulting in more accurate outcomes.

2. Enabling Fixed-Point Arithmetic

In SAP S/4HANA, fixed-point arithmetic can be enabled in the program properties in transaction SE38 or SE80 for each ABAP program individually. This is done by setting the "Use Fixed-Point Arithmetic" option in the program properties.

The USING FIXED-POINT ARITHMETIC switch ensures that ABAP applies fixed-point arithmetic when working with numeric fields such as P (Packed Number) or DEC (Decimal).

3. How Does Fixed-Point Arithmetic Work in S/4HANA?

Under SAP S/4HANA, fixed-point arithmetic behaves similarly to previous SAP versions. However, there are some optimizations and performance improvements, particularly in relation to the HANA database. Fixed-point arithmetic primarily affects calculations carried out on internal tables, local variables, or database operations.

  • Accuracy in Calculations: When fixed-point arithmetic is enabled, the number of decimal places is retained, ensuring rounding errors are avoided.
  • Divisions and Multiplications: In these operations, the number of decimal places is automatically adjusted to ensure precise calculations.
  • Overflow Control: Fixed-point arithmetic helps prevent overflows that can occur when working with floating-point numbers or large numeric values.

4. Practical Benefits of Fixed-Point Arithmetic

Accuracy in Financial Calculations

Fixed-point arithmetic is often used in finance and business-related programs, where precision is crucial. In accounting or dealing with monetary amounts, calculations must be accurate to the cent, which is why fixed-point arithmetic is commonly enabled in many ABAP applications.

Avoiding Rounding Errors

A common issue when using floating-point numbers is the occurrence of rounding errors. With fixed-point arithmetic, the number of decimal places is fixed, minimizing the risk of rounding errors.

Consistency in Database Processing

In SAP S/4HANA, which uses the HANA database, fixed-point arithmetic ensures that calculations remain consistent between the application layer (ABAP) and the database layer (HANA). This is especially important when processing large amounts of data in real-time.

5. Specific Considerations in SAP S/4HANA

While the functionality of fixed-point arithmetic in SAP S/4HANA largely remains unchanged, there are a few things to keep in mind:

  • Performance Optimizations: Since SAP S/4HANA is based on the HANA database, calculations are significantly faster, even with fixed-point arithmetic enabled. However, care should still be taken to avoid unnecessary system load in computation-intensive operations.
  • Focus on Data Types: When working with large datasets or defining numeric fields, the choice of the correct data type (e.g., P for Packed Number) should be made carefully to leverage the benefits of fixed-point arithmetic.

6. When Should Fixed-Point Arithmetic Not Be Used?

There are scenarios where fixed-point arithmetic may not be required or could even be counterproductive:

  • Scientific Calculations: In cases where very high precision for large or very small numbers is required, the use of floating-point numbers is more appropriate.
  • Performance-Critical Applications: In programs focused on maximum performance, where small rounding errors are tolerable, fixed-point arithmetic may be unnecessary.

Conclusion:

Fixed-point arithmetic in ABAP remains a key tool for precise decimal calculations, even under SAP S/4HANA. It is indispensable in business-critical areas such as accounting or controlling to avoid rounding errors and inaccuracies. Thanks to the optimizations in S/4HANA and the performance of the HANA database, users benefit from high performance without sacrificing precision.

Understanding and correctly applying fixed-point arithmetic is essential for any ABAP developer working with financial or precise numeric data.

 

Question for the Community: What has been your experience with fixed-point arithmetic in SAP S/4HANA? Do you frequently use it in your projects, or have you encountered situations where it became problematic? Let us know your thoughts and best practices!

4 REPLIES 4

Sandra_Rossi
Active Contributor
311

LOL GenAI hallucinations 😄

If you don't know ABAP, please don't post content that you didn't check.

Also, please read the SAP Community Rules of Engagement: "If you want to publish content that was helped/created by GenAI, you must add the user tag GenAI Assisted Content. For content where it's not possible to add a user tag (e.g., answers), you must include this statement: "GenAI was used to help generate this content."

0 Kudos
304

I am very familiar with ABAP and actively program in it. What makes you think that I don't know ABAP?

0 Kudos
163

You have posted ABAP code (that you have fixed since yesterday) which obviously isn't valid, and that looks like GenAI a lot:

REPORT <program_name> NO STANDARD PAGE HEADING LINE-SIZE <size> USING FIXED-POINT ARITHMETIC.

 

Sandra_Rossi
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
138

This blog post is unclear, full of errors, imprecisions and confusions (see below), especially the ABAP program attribute "fixed-point arithmetic" isn't related to decimal imprecision (confusion with binary floating-point numbers, i.e. variables of type F), it's about choosing between fixed-point numbers and "no-decimal numbers" (that would be another blog post to explain the real meaning of the program attribute "fixed-point arithmetic").

I suggest retiring this blog post to not mislead ABAP developers. Or instead, you could just say "don't use the data type F for accounting calculations".

Thank you.

  • "In ABAP, this is especially important to avoid precision errors that could occur when performing numeric operations with floating-point numbers"
    • Here you are talking about "binary floating-point numbers" (ABAP type F), to not confuse with ABAP 7.02 "decimal floating-point numbers" (ABAP types DECFLOAT16 and 34) which don't have these "decimal" precision errors. But what is the relationship with the program attribute "fixed-point arithmetic"?
  • "Fixed-point arithmetic can be enabled or disabled in an ABAP program"
    • It's enabled by default for new programs since ABAP 7.40, you cannot disable it. Only very old and obsolete programs have it disabled.
  • "when working with numeric fields such as P (Packed Number) or DEC (Decimal)"
    • P is the only ABAP type concerned. The DDIC data types DEC, QUAN and CURR correspond to P.
  • "Under SAP S/4HANA [...] there are some optimizations and performance improvements, particularly in relation to the HANA database."
    • There is no relationship between the ABAP program attribute "fixed point arithmetic" and HANA, and so there are no implied optimizations and performance improvements.
  • "4. Practical Benefits of Fixed-Point Arithmetic"
    • You are only talking about binary floating-point numbers versus packed numbers/decimal floating-point numbers. The ABAP program attribute Fixed-Point Arithmetic doesn't lead to decimal imprecisions, all ABAP programs are accurate to the cent hopefully, because they don't use the ABAP type F for accounting calculations.
  • "5. Specific Considerations in SAP S/4HANA"
    • It's repeating again and again what was said previously, without being clear.
  • "6. When Should Fixed-Point Arithmetic Not Be Used?"
    • Again, you mean not using the ABAP type F, it doesn't concern the program attribute "fixed-point arithmetic".