Linking ABAP Strings to Screen Fields (SAP Library)

Linking ABAP Strings to Screen Fields

ABAP fields of type STRING or XSTRING – that is, sequences of characters or bytes of variable length – can be linked to identically-named screen fields, just like fixed-length ABAP fields. However, you must ensure that the length of screen field is fixed, using the element attribute defLg in the Screen Painter – so that you are not linking to variable-length screen fields. Thus screen fields correspond to character fields (type C) in ABAP, whose length is always specified.

Data in STRING or XSTRING type fields is transported between the ABAP program and the screen just as it would be in an internal ABAP assignment (MOVE) between character or byte sequences and character fields:

When transporting a character or byte sequence to the screen, if the ABAP field contains more characters than the screen, the extra characters are cut off. The maximum length for a screen field is 132 characters – that is, a maximum of 132 characters of a character or string sequence can be transported to the screen.
When transporting from a screen field to a character string, trailing blanks are truncated.

These limitations apply to transports between normal input/output fields; fields in Table Controls; and in Drop Down-Boxes

Example

REPORT demo_dynpro_strings.
DATA: string1 TYPE string,
string2 TYPE string,
char1(10) TYPE c,
char2(100) TYPE c.
DATA len TYPE i.
string1 = '123 X'.
string1 = string1(10).
char1 = string1.
string2 = '12345678901234567890'.
char2 = string2.
len = strlen( string1 ).
WRITE: 'PBO:',
/ 'Length of STRING1:', len.
len = strlen( char1 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of CHAR1: ', len.
len = strlen( string2 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of STRING2:', len.
len = strlen( char2 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of CHAR2: ', len.
ULINE.
CALL SCREEN 100.
len = strlen( string1 ).
WRITE: 'PAI:',
/ 'Length of STRING1:', len.
len = strlen( char1 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of CHAR1: ', len.
len = strlen( string2 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of STRING2:', len.
len = strlen( char2 ).
WRITE: / 'Length of CHAR2: ', len.
ULINE.

The next screen number of screen 100 is 0 (statically-defined). Its layout is as follows:

Each of the screen fields has a length of 10. No modules are called in the screen flow logic.

When the program runs, the system displays a screen with the values ' 123 ' and '1234567890' in the fields STRING1,CHAR1, STRING2, and CHAR2. After you choose Enter, the following list appears:

PBO:
Length of STRING1: 10
Length of CHAR1: 3
Length of STRING2: 20
Length of CHAR2: 20

PAI:
Length of STRING1: 3
Length of CHAR1: 3
Length of STRING2: 10
Length of CHAR2: 10

At the PBO event, STRING1 contains 10 characters, including 7 final spaces. These are lost when the content of STRING1 is assigned to CHAR1; now, CHAR1 is only 3 characters long.

At the PAI event, STRING1 also contains only 3 characters, since the spaces have been suppressed when the string was transported to the screen and back.

All the characters that do not fit into the relevant screen fields are cut off in both STRING2 and CHAR2.