ABAP Core Part 7: Operators, Calculations and Type Conversion

📌 KEY POINTS
✅ Arithmetic: + - * / plus DIV (integer division), MOD (remainder) and (power).
✅ The result type follows the target field: assigning 7 / 2 to an integer gives 4 (rounded), not 3.
✅ String handling statements: CONCATENATE, SPLIT, CONDENSE, TRANSLATE, REPLACE, SEARCH / FIND, plus strlen( ).
⚠️ Moving non-numeric text into a number raises CX_SY_CONVERSION_NO_NUMBER — validate input or catch it.

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▶ WHERE WE ARE
Part 3 introduced types. Now we combine values: calculations, text processing and conversions.

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▶ 1. ARITHMETIC
lv_total = lv_price * lv_seats.

• / normal division; DIV integer quotient; MOD remainder (7 DIV 2 = 3, 7 MOD 2 = 1).
• ADD 1 TO lv_x and lv_x = lv_x + 1 are equivalent.
• Integer targets round commercially; packed targets keep the declared decimals.

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▶ 2. MONEY AND ROUNDING

• Use TYPE p (packed) with DECIMALS for amounts — never float.
• Intermediate results are calculated with high precision, then rounded to the target's decimals.
• Functions: round( val = x dec = 2 ), ceil( x ), floor( x ), abs( x ).

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▶ 3. TEXT PROCESSING

• CONCATENATE a b INTO c SEPARATED BY space.
• SPLIT lv_line AT ';' INTO lv_f1 lv_f2 lv_f3 (or INTO TABLE lt_parts).
• CONDENSE lv_text (NO-GAPS removes all blanks).
• TRANSLATE lv_text TO UPPER CASE.
• REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF ',' IN lv_num WITH '.'.
• SEARCH / FIND 'CARGO' IN lv_text — sy-subrc 0 if found.

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▶ 4. CONVERSIONS

• MOVE / = converts between compatible types automatically (e.g. c → n, c → p when the text is numeric).
• Conversion exits: CONVERSION_EXIT_ALPHA_INPUT / _OUTPUT for leading zeros; WRITE … TO for formatted output (dates, amounts with CURRENCY).
• Invalid numbers: catch CX_SY_CONVERSION_NO_NUMBER, or check with CO '0123456789 ' / CATCH SYSTEM-EXCEPTIONS in very old code.

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▶ 5. MODERN SYNTAX (SIDE NOTE)
From 7.40: CONV type( ), EXACT type( ), string functions like to_upper( ), condense( ) and embedded templates |{ … }|. Same results, more compact.

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▶ STEP BY STEP

1. Compare 7 / 2 in an integer and in a packed field.
2. Sum three packed prices and round a share to 2 decimals.
3. Split a CSV line, clean the fields and convert the amount with error handling.

✅ CHECKPOINT: you can calculate, process texts and convert values safely with classic statements.

An interface read material and connection numbers from a CSV file and selected from the database without conversion. Records with "400" instead of "0400" were not found, and the interface reported them as missing master data every night.
Adding ALPHA = IN conversion (and the correct conversion exits for material numbers) before the database read solved it. The team also used EXACT for numeric fields from the file so that malformed values raised clear errors instead of silently truncating.

• Expecting integer division to truncate (it rounds).
• Using f or i for amounts.
• Ignoring conversion exits (leading zeros) for keys from files.
• Silent truncation when assigning longer text to shorter fields.
• Not catching conversion exceptions for external input.

• Choose the target type deliberately; round explicitly.
• Use DIV/MOD for integer logic.
• Use built-in functions instead of manual string handling.
• Use EXACT for external data where loss is unacceptable.
• Apply conversion exits (ALPHA etc.) for keys from outside SAP.

Questions: "What is 7 / 2 in an integer?", "Difference between CONV and EXACT?", "Why is ALPHA conversion needed?"
Strong answer: integer targets round (7 / 2 = 4), DIV gives 3 and MOD 1; CONV converts explicitly, EXACT converts only without data loss and raises CX_SY_CONVERSION_ERROR otherwise; conversion exits like ALPHA translate between external and internal formats, e.g. adding leading zeros before database reads.