Diving Deeper into ABAP: Exploring String Operations - Concatenate, Split, Condense, and More!

 Welcome back everyone, We have discussed the different types of loops and system variables in our previous blog, Today We will continue with String operations.

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String Operations :-

• A string is a collection of characters.
• String is an elementary data type of variable length.

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String Operations :- CONCATENATE

• The purpose of concatenate is to combine the strings.

• Syntax : concatenate <c1> ———— <cn> into <c> separated by <s>.

• In the above syntax : concatenate = keyword, <c1>————<cn> = individual strings, into = keyword, <c> = final result string, separated by = keyword, <s> = separated.

• Create a executable program in SE38.

  
  
  

  
  

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  ***********************************************************************
  *Start of Program
  *Declaring variables
  DATA : lv_input1(10) type c value 'Welcome',
         lv_input2(10) type c value 'To',
         lv_input3(10) type c value 'Home',
         lv_output type string. "No need to declare length for string
  *************************************
  *Concatenate the string.
  CONCATENATE lv_input1 lv_input2 lv_input3
  into lv_output SEPARATED BY space.
  
  **************************************
  *Displaying the output.
  Write : 'The output is',
        / lv_output.
  *End of Program
  *********************************************************************************
  

  
  
  

  
  

  Note :- separated by used to give a space between variables during concatenation.

  Output :

  
  
  

  
  

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String Operations :- SPLIT

• The purpose of split is to divide the strings.
• For split, separator is compulsory.
• Syntax : split<string> at <separator> into <f1><f2><f3>…
• In the above syntax : split = keyword, <string> = string which we need to split, at = keyword, <separator> = any delimiter, into = keyword, <f1><f2><f3>———- = individual strings.

Note :- In the above program during concatenation, we concatenated multiple strings into lv_output at space separator, now we will split them using split.

****************************************************
*Start of program.
*Declaring variables for output
DATA : lv_result1 TYPE string,
       lv_result2 TYPE string,
       lv_result3 TYPE string.

***************************
*Performing split.
SPLIT lv_output AT space INTO lv_result1 lv_result2 lv_result3.

**************
*Displaying the output.
WRITE : 'The results are :',
      / lv_result1,
      / lv_result2,
      / lv_result3.
*End of program
***********************************************************

Output :

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String Operations : CONDENSE

• The purpose of condense is to remove the leading and trailing spaces and convert a sequence of spaces into a single space.

• Syntax : condense<c>.

• In the above syntax : condense = keyword, <c> = string which we want to condense.

  *********************************************************
  *Start of program
  *Define a variable with alot of leading and trailing spaces
  DATA : lv_input type string value ' Welcome   To   HOME  '.
  
  *Before Aplying Condense.
  WRITE : 'Before Condense : ',
        / lv_input.
  
  *Apply Condense.
  CONDENSE lv_input.
  
  *After Apply condense
  Write :/ 'After Condense : ',
        / lv_input.
  
  *End of Program.
  ***********************************************************
  

  
  
  

  
  

  Output :-

  
  
  

  
  

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String Operations : CONDENSE NO-GAPS :-

• To remove the entire spaces the addition no-gaps is used with condense.

• Syntax : condense <c> no-gaps.

• In the above syntax : condense = keyword, <c> = string which we want to condense, no-gaps = keyword.

  *********************************************************
  *Start of program
  *Define a variable with alot of leading and trailing spaces
  DATA : lv_input type string value ' Welcome   To   HOME  '.
  
  *Before Aplying Condense.
  WRITE : 'Before Condense No gaps : ',
        / lv_input.
  
  *Apply Condense.
  CONDENSE lv_input NO-GAPS.
  
  *After Apply condense
  Write :/ 'After Condense no gaps : ',
        / lv_input.
  
  *End of Program.
  ***********************************************************
  

  
  
  

  
  

Output :

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String Operations :- STRLEN

• The purpose of STRLEN is to provide the string length.

• Syntax : len = strlen( string ).

• In the above syntax : len = variable name which returns the length of the string, strlen = pre-defined operation, string = string whose length needs to be calculated.

  ******************************************************************
  *Start of Program
  *Defining the variable
  DATA : lv_input type string value ' Welcome   To   HOME  '.
  DATA : lv_length(2) type n.
  
  *Using strlen
  lv_length = STRLEN( lv_input ).
  
  *Displaying the length
  WRITE : 'The length of the string is',
        / lv_length.
  
  *End of Program
  ********************************************************************
  

  
  
  

  
  

  Output :-

  
  
  

  
  

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String Operations : FIND

• The purpose of find is to find a particular pattern in a string.

• Syntax : FIND<pattern>IN<str>.

• In the above syntax : FIND = keyword, <pattern> = is the sequence of characters we are looking for, IN = keyword, <str> = is the string that is being searched.

  *************************************************************
  *Start of Program
  DATA lv_input(50) type c value 'System Application Product'.
  
  FIND 'System' IN lv_input.
  IF sy-subrc eq 0.
    WRITE : 'Successful', sy-subrc.
  ELSE.
    WRITE : 'Unsuccessful', sy-subrc.
  ENDIF.
  
  *End of Program
  ***********************************************************
  

  
  
  

  
  

  Output :

  
  
  

  
  

  • Here, sy-subrc 0 indicates that above statement has executed successfully.

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  So, that’s enough for today.

  We will discuss internal table and work area tomorrow.

  Thanx alot for being a part of this wonderful journey.