Introduction to the Editor

Introduction to the Editor

The ABAP Editor is a tool for writing ABAP program code, function modules, screen flow logic, type groups, and logical databases. This section covers the following subjects:

Starting the Editor.

How to use the functions in the Editor.

Working with lines and blocks of source code.

Improving the layout of your programs.

Inserting and using statement templates in your programs.

Creating a message class for a program.

Before reading this documentation, you should already be familiar with the information presented in Overview of the Workbench and Information and Navigation.

Editor Concepts

When working with the Editor, you should keep in mind that ABAP programs are not stored as ASCII files, but as entries in the SAP database. For this reason, you should use the Editor for creating ABAP programs. If you intend to use an editor other than the ABAP/4 Editor, see Uploading and Downloading Files.

Editor Modes

The ABAP Editor has three modes:

Edit Control Modus	Allows you to edit program code in a local editor
PC Mode	Allows you to use word processor type functions such as Cut, Copy and Paste
PC mode with line numbering	Allows you to use functions such as Cut, Copy and Paste, but with line numbers This is the default mode.
Command mode	Supplies the same functionality associated with the R/2 version of the SAP software.

This documentation assumes you are using the Editor in PC mode with line numbering. Command Mode in the ABAP/4 Editor supplies information about the command mode.