Determining the Structure of Lines

Prerequisites

You are in the Basic List series of screens and have created a new query or want to change an existing query.

Use

On the Basic List Line Structure screen, you specify the lines in which you want to display the fields and the order in which you want the fields to appear.

The following basic list contains all the fields on one line.

Note Note

This basic list is also known as a single-line basic list.

End of the note.

There are three variants of the Basic List Line Structure screen. The lower part of the screen for each of these variants contains different information:

The line structure of the basic list is displayed in the lower part of the screen.

If you make changes in the upper part of the screen, these changes are reflected at once in the lower part of the screen (that is, as soon as you press ENTER). You use the Start of the navigation path Query Next navigation step Layout Display End of the navigation path function to display the complete layout of the list.

The individual options are explained in the lower part of the screen.

The field display option is also available for the lower part of the screen.

You use the following functions to switch between these three screen variants: Start of the navigation path Settings Next navigation step With Explanations , Settings Without Explanations , Query Line Structure End of the navigation path .

Note Note

All the screens that are used to define basic lists, statistics, and ranked lists have these three screen variants. You use the same methods to navigate between the variants.

End of the note.

You use the Start of the navigation path Setting Next navigation step Settings End of the navigation path option to determine which of the three variants is displayed first when you call a screen. The screen containing the line structure is displayed first by default.

Procedure

Proceed as follows to determine the structure of the lines:

Under Lines , choose the line, in which you want the field to be displayed.
Since our example uses a single-line basic list, specify 1 for each field.
Under Sequence , specify the order, in which you want the fields to be displayed.
With text and calculation fields, you must specify the field size (number of characters/digits and number of decimal places). See Determining Sort Sequences .
The highest-ranking sort criterion must have the smallest sequence number, the second highest-ranking criterion must have a larger sequence number, and so on. Ideally, you should start with the number 1 and assign increasingly greater numbers without leaving any gaps. The highest-ranking sort criterion is usually therefore given the number 1. This is not however a requirement.
Select the Basic list with frame and Columns separated by | (only for ABAP lists) options.
Use the function to navigate to the Output Options: List Lines screen. See Display Options for Lines

Additional Functions

There are two display options that help to improve the layout of basic lists:

Basic list with frames (only for ABAP lists)

The basic list is surrounded by a frame. When you define the line width, remember that each line requires two extra characters for the frame. When you leave the Frame Width input field blank, the system only frames the part of the basic list that is actually used. Otherwise, in this field you can determine the width of the frame as anything between the required width and the width of the list. If the width you specify is too big or too small, the system corrects your entry automatically to fit.

Columns separated by | (only for ABAP lists)

With this option, a vertical bar is displayed after each field. It ensures that indented lines (for example, for sub-totals) are framed and that no lines are left open.

With multiple-line basic lists, different lines usually have different structures, meaning that no straight vertical lines are created when the Column separation with | option is selected. You can deselect the Columns with | option on the List Line Output Options screen. Further information can be found under List Line Output Options

The section Interactive Functions for Displaying Lists describes how you switch between a complete display and a compressed display of multiple-line basic lists. The Compressed display option allows you to decide whether the first list that is displayed when the query is started is complete or compressed.

Note Note

You do not use this option to specify that you want the compressed display option to be available. This is determined by the query itself.

End of the note.