The ABAP Editor is a tool that you use to write ABAP programs, class methods, function modules, screen flow logic, type groups, and logical databases.

The ABAP Editor has two different modes:

• Frontend editor
• Table control mode

The frontend editor uses the SAP Textedit Control from the SAP Control Framework. It loads your source code onto the frontend and allows you to perform many tasks without any communication with the application server.

Table control mode and frontend editor are fully compatible and interchangeable – source code that you have created using one mode is properly reproduced by the system in the other without you having to do anything yourself. In particular, the line lengths are the same. If you exceed the maximum length, the system automatically inserts a line break.

Both editor modes offer the same source code layout. The contents of the editor are displayed exactly as they are stored in the database. There is no automatic conversion (for example, into uppercase) in either mode.

There are differences between the two modes in respect of how they are used, the system requirements, and (to a small extent) the functions that they contain. Other sections of this documentation explain the differences in more detail.