Standard SAP data transfer programs require that every field in a data structure contains either:

• a value; or
• a special NODATA marker, which indicates that the no batch input data is required for the field.

If you are writing your own conversion program, you should therefore initialize all of the fields in your batch input data structure with the NODATA character. The NODATA character must occupy the first position in the field, as shown in the figure below.

By default, the NODATA character is the forward slash. To initialize a field to NODATA, you must write this character as the first character in the field value.

If a batch input program finds NODATA in a field, then the program allows the field to default to its standard value in the SAP transaction that contains the field.

Setting the NODATA character: You can freely select another character as the NODATA character by:

• Specifying this in the selection screen for a generated data transfer program
• Defining the new character in the data transfer program that reads the data in the BGR00-NODATA field: