Open Programs Using the ABAP Editor

To open ABAP programs directly using the ABAP Editor, choose ABAP Editor in the ABAP Development Workbench screen or start transaction SE38. The ABAP Editor: Initial Screen appears.

In the Program field, enter a program name according to the naming conventions .

Creating a new program

If the program does not exist, choose Create. The ABAP: Program Attributes screen appears regardless of which object component you selected.

Here, the system does not offer a top include. This procedure of creating a program is therefore suited for reports and short test programs only.

From here, carry on as described in Creating a new Program.

Maintaining an Existing Program

If the program exists, you can mark one of the following Object components and choose Display or Change to edit the component.

This opens the ABAP Editor for the program and you can start editing the program.

Mark this to maintain variants. Variants allow you to define fixed values for the input fields on the selection screen of a report. For further details about variants, see Filling Selection Screens Using Variants.

Here, you maintain the program attributes. The Maintaining Program Attributes section contains an overview of the input fields.

Mark this to maintain a program-specific documentation for a report. The system opens the SAPscript Editor, where you can enter the documentation according to the predefined template. When executing the report, the user can display this documentation by choosing System ® Services ® Reporting (transaction SA38) and Goto ® Documentation. If the report is stored as node in a reporting tree (transaction SERP), the user can choose Goto ® Display docu there to display the documentation.

Mark this to maintain text elements. Text elements are all texts that appear on the selection screen or on the output screen of a report. For further information about text elements, see Working with Text Elements

To go to these object components from within the ABAP Editor, choose the menu entry Goto.