Assigning Title, Format, and Notes 

Use

In the first screen of the Field Selection sequence of screens, you determine the title and the page format.

Prerequisites

You are in the Field Selection screen and want to create a new query or change an existing query.

Procedure

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       1.      Use the  and  functions to navigate to the first screen of the Field Selection sequence of screens.

       2.      Type the appropriate information into the dialog fields.

·        Title:

The title that you specify is used later as the title of the window in the list created by the query and also as the first row of the header when you print the list.

·        Notes:

In addition, there are three lines where you can type notes to document the query. When you request the query directory, the system displays these notes next to the title of the query.

·        List format (for ABAP lists only):

The system uses the standard format (dynamic page size, meaning no information about the number of rows per page, and 38 columns) for displaying lists on the screen, but you can always overwrite this. Unless you specify otherwise, the system adapts the standard format automatically to suit the output device that you are using. The list is prepared with dynamic page size and 83 columns for displaying on the screen. If you decide to print the list, the system proposes a standard format on the print options screen, but you can also overwrite this.

The number of columns you specify determines the maximum width of the list. Each sublist is displayed as wide as it needs to be, regardless of the number of columns you specify. The number of columns determines when a line break occurs in basic lists. With statistics and ranked lists, the number of columns must be high enough to avoid line breaks.

If you define statistics or ranked lists at a later stage, the query may increase the number of columns automatically. If this happens, the system displays a message to let you know.

The advantage of dynamic page-sizing, is that the dimensions of your list do not depend on the size of the monitor screen. In most cases, therefore, you should use dynamic page-sizing. Each of the different sublists (basic list, statistics, and ranked lists) always start on a new page.

·        Table format:

If you want to display a list as a table, you use the information about the table format to determine the size of the table view control.

·        Special attributes:

Special attributes allow you to determine additional properties of the query or the report that is generated from the query.

Assigning a standard variant

You can create one standard variant per query. This variant is always used whenever you use the Execute function to start the query. The name of this standard variant is also the default value for the Execute with variant function. Any query with a standard variant is therefore always executed with a variant.

Remember that you are able to maintain query variants only on the initial screen. For this reason, you are able to define a standard variant only after you have defined a query to the extent that you are able to generate a report from it.

For further information about working with variants, refer to Executing Queries Online.

Executing queries with variants only

Besides the standard variant, there is also the Execute only with variant attribute. You use the standard variant only if you execute the query in the Maintain Queries component. However, the Execute only with variant attribute applies to the generated report and is therefore also effective when you start this report directly.

Change lock

You put a check mark next to the appropriate field if you want to set a change lock for your query to protect it from being changed by other users. Only the person who sets this attribute is able to make further changes to the query.

In the Maintain InfoSets component, an administrator is able to use the Goto ® Query Directory function to remove change locks for queries.

·        Printing lists (only for ABAP lists):

Printing lists with or without a standard title

You use this option if you want a standard title to be printed on each page of the list. The title does not appear on the screen. The standard title includes the date, the query title, and the page number.

A standard title is also generated if you execute the query in the background.

If you do not want the standard title to be printed, but you do need the date or the page number, you must maintain your headers accordingly (see Changing Headers).

Left margin

This option allows you to specify the size (number of characters) of the left margin when the list is printed. This option does not affect how the list is displayed on the screen.

·        Display format (forwarding the list directly)

The radio buttons on the selection screen of the generated report are pre-set as a result of the options for forwarding a list (see Interactive Functions for Further List Processing).

Additional Functions

·        Adding a query to the report/report interface

The Goto ® Report Assignment function integrates the query into the report/report interface. This means that the interface can be used to call queries (receiver) and the queries themselves can call other reports (sender). The term ‘report’ is a collective term that refers to ABAP reports (or queries), transactions, report-writer reports, EIS drilldown reports, and report portfolio reports.

·        Calling the report assignment

When you call the Goto ® Report Assignment function, a window appears, in which you specify the other reports that can be called from the query (the query is a sender). Since every query is also a report, several queries can be combined in this way, to create a new type of drilldown technique in ABAP Query. The way that data is exchanged is described in Calling Other Reports.

·        Determining the display sequence

If several sublists (basic lists, statistics, ranked lists) are defined for a query, you use the Edit ® Output Sequence function to determine the order in which these sublists are displayed. When you call this function, a dialog box appears, in which all the sublists that have been defined so far are listed in the order that they are displayed. In front of each sublist there is an input field, in which you can type a number between 1 and 90. This number sequence determines the order in which the sublists are displayed. Sublists with no sequence number (the standard setting) are displayed after any sublists that have been assigned a sequence number and in the order that they appear in this list.

If two or more sublists have been given the same sequence number or no number at all, the order that the sublists are displayed is: basic lists, statistics, ranked lists.

The Edit ®Output sequence function is available on all maintenance screens.