Day 16

Formatting Techniques, Part 2

• Chapter Objectives
• List Formatting Statements
  • Using the new-line Statement
  • Using the new-page Statement
  • Using new-page print
  • Using the skip Statement
  • Using the back Statement
  • Using the position Statement
  • Using the set blank lines Statement
• Summary
• Q&A
  
• Workshop
  • Quiz
  • Exercise 1

Chapter Objectives

After you have completed this chapter, you will be able to

• Use the formatting statements new-line, new-page, skip, back, position and set blank lines.
• Send output to the spool using new-page print.

List Formatting Statements

There are several statements commonly needed to format a list:

• new-line
• new-page
• skip
• back
• position
• set blank lines

Using the new-line Statement

Use the new-line statement to cause the output of the next write statement to begin on a new line. Unlike skip or write /, consecutive new-line statements do not cause a blank line to appear in the output list.

Syntax for the new-line Statement

new-line [no-scrolling].

The no-scrolling addition locks the next line in place. Horizontal scrolling has no effect on lines that have been locked in this way.

Listing 16.1 illustrates the use of the new-line statement.

Listing 16.1  The NEW-LINE Statement

1  report ztx1601 line-size 255.
2  tables: ztxlfa1, ztxlfc3.
3  select * from ztxlfa1.
4      new-line no-scrolling.
5      write: ztxlfa1-lifnr, ztxlfa1-name1. "this line won't scroll right
6      select * from ztxlfc3 where lifnr = ztxlfa1-lifnr.
7          write: /14 ztxlfc3-bukrs, ztxlfc3-gjahr, ztxlfc3-shbkz,
8                  40 ztxlfc3-saldv, ztxlfc3-solll, ztxlfc3-habnl.
9          endselect.
10     endselect.

The code in Listing 16.1 produces the following output:

1000       Parts Unlimited
             1000 1990 A                    1,000.00         500.00
             1000 1991 A                        0.00       5,000.00
             1000 1992 A                    1,000.00      11,000.00
             1000 1993 A                        0.00      10,000.00
             1000 1994 A                        0.00       1,000.00
             1000 1995 A                    1,000.00       1,150.00
             1000 1995 Z                        0.00       9,000.00
             1000 1996 A                    1,000.00      50,000.00
             1000 1996 Z                    5,000.00           0.00
             1000 1998 Z                    4,000.00           0.00
             3000 1998 A                        0.00      10,000.00
1010       Industrial Pumps Inc.
             1000 1994 A                        0.00       1,000.00
             1000 1995 A                        0.00       1,500.00
             1000 1996 A                    1,500.00           0.00
1020       Chemical Nation Ltd.
             1000 1995 A                        0.00       2,000.00
             1000 1996 A                        0.00           0.00
1030       ChickenFeed Ltd.
1040       Motherboards Inc.
             1000 1990 A                      100.00       3,000.00
             1000 1997 A                      100.00       1,500.00
             2000 1997 A                        0.00         500.00
             2000 1998 A                    1,000.00         300.00
             3000 1998 A                        0.00       2,400.00

Lines 7 and 8 write vendor detail lines that are wider than the screen. Scrolling to the right allows you to see the right portion of the lines, but the vendor name and number stay within view. This happens because the write statement on line 5 is preceded by the new-line no-scrolling statement on line 4.

Using the new-page Statement

Use the new-page statement to

• Cause the output of the next write statement to begin on a new page. Consecutive new-page statements do not generate blank pages.
• Turn titles and headers on or off.
• Vary the line count or line size from one page to the next.
• Turn printing on and off.

Syntax for the new-page Statement

new-page [no-title | with-title]
         [no-heading | with-heading]
         [line-count n(m)]
         [line-size k]
         [print on | print off]

where:

• n, m, and k are numeric variables or literals.

The following points apply:

• new-page can be used anywhere in the program. You can use it even before the first write statement to set the characteristics of the list output. Because it accepts variables, it is more flexible than similar additions on the report statement.
• no-title turns off the standard title on the following pages. (The title is the first line of the standard page headers.) with-title turns it on.
• no-heading turns off the standard column headers for the following pages. with-heading turns it on.
• line-count sets the number of lines per page and the number of lines reserved at the bottom of each page for a footer. Either one of these values, or both, can be specified. This was covered earlier in this chapter.
• line-size sets the number of output columns for the following pages. The default is the current window width.
• print-on causes output from following write statements to be sent to the spool instead of the list. Users do not see this output unless they look in the spool. (View and printing spool output was covered earlier in this chapter.) print-off does the reverse.
• Consecutive new-page statements do not generate blank pages.
• new-page does not trigger the end-of-page event. Therefore, a footer will not be printed at the bottom of the current page if you issue the new-page statement.

Using new-page print

At times there is a need for a report that both writes to the output list and sends output to the printer at the same time. For example, you may wish to write a report that shows a summary to the user online, and send a detail report to the printer at the same time. Use new-page print on to do this. The output from all write statements that follow new-page print on will not appear in the list. Instead, it will be sent to the spool. Issuing new-page print off reverses this effect. The output from all write statements that follow it will again be seen in the list.

Each time new-page print on is executed

• The system displays the Print Parameters screen to the user (shown in Figure 16.1). It prompts the user for parameters such as the printer ID and Output Format.
  Figure 16.1 : The Print Parameters screen.
• If, on the Print Parameters screen, there is a tickmark in the New Spool Request field it creates a new spool request. A spool request is a separate list in the spool.

Syntax for the new-page print on Statement

new-page print on
    [no dialog]
    [new section]
    [immediately        immedflag]
    [destination        destid]
    [copies             numcopies]
    [layout             layoutid]
    [list name          listname]
    [sap cover page     coverpageflag]
    [cover text         title]
    [department         dept]
    [receiver           recievername]
    [keep in spool      keepflag]
    [dataset expiration numdays]
    [line-count         linesperpage]
    [line-size          numcolumns]

where:

• Any of the italicized names in the proceeding code can be a literal or a variable.

The following points apply:

• Use no dialog to suppress the display of the Print Parameters screen that asks the user for print parameters. The user's defaults are used instead. If the user has not filled in a printer ID in his defaults, the Print Parameters screen will be shown even when you specify no dialog.
• Use new section to restart page numbering, beginning again at 1.
• Use immediately 'X' to cause the list to be printed immediately. The default is immediately ' ', which holds the list in the spool.
• Use destination to specify a printer ID.
• Use copies to specify the number of copies to print.
• Use layout to specify a printer layout. The printer layout determines printer characteristics such as the number of lines per page and the number of columns per line. You can see the printer layouts defined for your installation by printing something and looking at the Format field on the Print List Output screen.
• Use list name to specify a name for the list while in the spool. You can use this to search for it later in the spool. (Enter this value in the 3rd field beside Spool Request Name on the Spool: Request Screen)
• Use sap cover page to control the printing of a cover page with the output. A blank value suppresses the cover page, 'X' causes one to print, and 'D' indicates that the printer settings should determine whether a cover page is printed or not.
• Use cover text to specify the title to be printed on the cover page.
• Use department to specify a department ID to be printed on the cover page.
• Use receiver to specify the name of the person who should receive the report. It is printed on the cover page.
• Use keep in spool 'X' to cause the spool request to stay in the spool after the report has been printed. This allows the user to reprint the list without re-running the report.
• Use dataset expiration to specify how many days the spool request should stay on the spool. When the request expires, it is deleted from the spool.
• Use line-count and line-size to specify the number of lines per page and number of columns per line.

Additional parameters are documented in the ABAP/4 keyword documentation.

Listing 16.2 illustrates the use of the new-page print statement.

Listing 16.2   The NEW-PAGE PRINT Statement

1  report ztx1602.
2  tables ztxlfa1.
3  parameters: prt_id like estwo-spooldest obligatory.
4 
5  new-page print on
6      no dialog
7      immediately 'X'
8      destination prt_id.
9 
10 select * from ztxlfa1.
11     write: / ztxlfa1-lifnr.
12     endselect.
13
14 new-page print off.
15 write: / sy-dbcnt, 'lines sent to printer', prt_id.

The code in Listing 16.2 produces the following output:

        23  lines sent to printer BOS4           

• Line 3 prompts the user for a printer ID. The field estwo-spooldest has a foreign key relationship to the table that contains the printer IDs, so a down-arrow is displayed on the input field. It allows the user to display a list of the available printer IDs.
• Line 5 redirects the output for subsequent write statements. no dialog suppresses the display of the Print Parameters screen. Instead the parameters are taken from the user profile, and from the parameters specified on lines 6 through 8. immediately 'X' causes the output to be printed immediately. Line 8 passes the printer ID entered by the user on the selection screen.
• The output from lines 10 through 12 is sent directly to the printer. It is not seen in the output list.
• Line 14 removes the indirection and the output from subsequent write statements appear in the list.

Displaying the ABAP/4 Keyword Documentation for new-page Ppint

Normally, F1 help will not display the new-page print documentation. To display it, use the following procedure:

1. Begin at the ABAP/4 Editor: Initial Screen.
2. Choose the menu path Utilities-> ABAP/4 Key Word Doc. You then see the Display Structure: ABAP/4-SAP's 4GL Programming Language screen.
3. Click the Find button on the standard toolbar. The Search Titles screen is displayed.
4. In the Find field, type new-page print.
5. Click the Continue button. You are returned to the previous screen and your cursor is positioned on the new-page print line.
6. Double-click that line. The documentation for new-page print is displayed.

Using the skip Statement

The skip statement allows you to

• Generate blank lines.
• Move the current output position up or down within the current output page.

Syntax for the skip Statement

skip [n | to line n].

where:

• n is a numeric literal or variable.

Without any additions, skip generates a blank line. Skip n generates n blank lines. If n is less than 1, no blank lines are generated. skip at the end of the current page will cause a page break. skip will generate blank lines after any write statement, at the top of the first page, and at the top of any page begun by the new-page statement. It will not generate blank lines at the beginning of any other new page or at the end of the last page of the list. For example, if there is space for two more lines at the bottom of the current page, skip 5 will generate two blank lines at the bottom of the current page, but none at the top of the next page. This happens because the new page was not the first page and was not generated by a new-page statement.

skip to line n causes the current output position to be set to the beginning of line n of the current page. The output from the next write statement will begin at that position. For example, skip to line 3 causes the output from the next write statement to begin in column 1 of line 3. A skip to line statement that contains a line number greater than the current number of lines per page is ignored.

Listing 16.3 illustrates the use of the skip statement.

Listing 16.3  The SKIP Statement

1  report ztx1603.
2  tables ztxlfa1.
3  data n type i.
4  select * from ztxlfa1 order by land1.
5      on change of ztxlfa1-land1.
6          if sy-dbcnt > 1.
7              n = sy-linno - 1.
8              skip to line n.
9              write 35 '*** Last Vendor With This Country Code ***'.
10             endif.
11         write / ztxlfa1-land1.
12         endon.
13     write: /4 ztxlfa1-lifnr, ztxlfa1-name1.
14     endselect.

The code in Listing 16.3 produces the following output:

CA
   1000       Parts Unlimited                                                        
   1010       Industrial Pumps Inc.                                                  
   1020       Chemical Nation Ltd.                                                   
   1030       ChickenFeed Ltd.     
   1050       The Bit Bucket                                                         
   1060       Memory Lane Ltd.                                                       
   1070       Flip My Switch Inc. *** Last Vendor With This Country Code ***
CC V9         Code Now, Specs Later Ltd.                                                    
   V10        Duncan's Mouse Inc. *** Last Vendor With This Country Code ***
DE V6         Anna Banana Ltd.
   V11        Wiener Schnitzel Inc.
   V12        Sauerkraut AG      *** Last Vendor With This Country Code ***
US V8         Smile When You Say That Ltd.
   1040       Motherboards Inc.
   1080       Silicon Sandwich Ltd.
   1090       Consume Ltd.
   2000       Monitors and More Ltd.
   V1         Quality First Ltd.
   V2         OverPriced Goods Inc.
   V3         Fluffy Bunnies Ltd.
   V4         Moo like a Cow Inc.
   V5         Wolfman Sport Accessories Inc.
   V7         The Breakfast Club Inc.

Each time the value of ztxlfa1-land1 changes

• Line 5 is triggered each time the value of land1 changes.
• On line 6, sy-dbcnt is the current loop pass counter. When the first record is being processed it has a value of one, and so the code inside the if is not executed for the first record, but it is for every succeeding record.
• For succeeding records, on line 7 sy-linno contains the line number of the current list line. That is, it is the line number that the next write statement will write to. One is subtracted from it and this is assigned to n.
• Line 8 moves the output position to the beginning of line n, which is the previously written line.
• Line 9 writes on that line, flagging the last vendor of each group.

Using the back Statement

Use the back statement to return the current output position to

• The first line of the current page (the first line after top-of-page has been processed).
• The first line output after a reserve statement has been issued.

Syntax for the back Statement

The following is the syntax for the back statement:

back.

where:

• back issued from within the top-of-page event returns to the first line written within top-of-page.

Explaining further, if you specified no standard page heading on the report statement, it returns to the first line of the page. If you have a standard page heading, the output position is set to line first line following the standard header.

A sample program is shown in Listing 16.4.

Listing 16.4  The BACK Statement

1  report ztx1604 no standard page heading.
2  data n type i.
3  do 4 times.
4      write: /(4) sy-index.
5      enddo.
6  back.
7  do 4 times.
8      n = sy-index * 10.
9      write: /10(4) n.
10     enddo.
11
12 top-of-page.
13     write: / 'This was my title'.
14     uline.
15     back.
16     write 6 'is '.
17     skip.

The code in Listing 16.4 produces the following output:

This is  my title   
-----------------------
  1       10        
  2       20        
  3       30        
  4       40        

• The first execution of line 4 triggers line 12 (the top-of-page event).
• Line 13 writes a title, and line 14 underlines it.
• Line 15 sets the current output position to the first line in the output list.
• Line 16 overwrites 'was' with 'is '.
• Line 17 moves the current output position down one line. The second line of the output list is now the current output line.
• Control returns to line 4. It issues a new line character and the first value from this loop is output to the third line of output. The remaining values are output on succeeding lines.
• Line 6 returns the current output position to what it was for the first write after the top-of-page processing (output list line 2).
• The loop on lines 7 through 10 overwrites the output list beginning on line 3. This data is written to the right of the existing data, beginning in column 10.

Using the position Statement

Use the position statement to specify the next output column on the current line. For example, skip to line 2. position 3. write 'Hi'. would write Hi on line 2 beginning in column 3.

Syntax for the position Statement

position v1.

where:

• v1 is a numeric variable or literal.

Listing 16.5 illustrates the use of the position statement.

Listing 16.5   The POSITION Statement

1  report ztx1605.
2  data n type i.
3  do 4 times.
4      do 4 times.
5          position sy-index.
6          write 'A'.
7          enddo.
8      new-line.
9      enddo.
10
11 skip.
12 do 4 times.
13     do 4 times.
14         position sy-index.
15         write 'A'.
16         enddo.
17     skip.
18     enddo.

The code in Listing 16.5 produces the following output:

      AAAA                     
      AAAA                     
      AAAA                     
      AAAA                     
                               
      AAAA                     
                               
      AAAA                     
                               
      AAAA                     
                               
      AAAA                     

• Line 3 begins a do loop.
• Line 4 begins a nested do loop. Each time through, line 5 sets the current output position equal to the current loop iteration. So, the first time through, the current output position is set to 1. The second time through it's set to 2, and so on. This causes line 6 to write the letter A 4 times, in columns 1 through 4.
• Line 8 moves the output position down one line. This results in the output being written on successive lines, beginning at the line following the standard headers.
• Line 11 outputs a blank line.
• Lines 12 through 18 are the same as lines 3 through 9, except instead of new-line, skip is used on line 17. This has the effect of inserting blank lines between successive output lines.

Using the set blank lines Statement

Normally, if your program issues a write statement that results in a blank line being output, this blank line will be suppressed. For example, when writing out a variable that contains blanks, you will not see a blank line in the list. Use the set blank lines statement to change this behavior.

Syntax for the set blank lines Statement

set blank lines on | off.

The following points apply:

• The default setting is off.
• Blank lines generated by the skip statement are not suppressed.
• Blank lines generated by write / without a variable are not suppressed. For example, write /. will always generate a blank line. Write / ' '. will only generate a blank line if set blank lines on has been executed beforehand.

Listing 16.6 illustrates the set blank lines statement.

Listing 16.6  The SET BLANK LINES Statement

1  report ztx1606.
2  data: f1, f2, f3.
3  write: / 'Text 1'.
4  write: / f1, / f2, / f3.
5  write: / 'Text 2'.
6  skip.
7 
8  set blank lines on.
9  write: / 'Text 3'.
10 write: / f1, / f2, / f3.
11 write: / 'Text 4'.
12
13 set blank lines off.
14 skip.
15 write: / 'Text 5'.
16 write: / f1, / f2, / f3.
17 write: / 'Text 6'.

The code in Listing 16.6 produces the following output:

  Text 1          
  Text 2          
                  
  Text 3          
                  
                  
                  
  Text 4          
                
  Text 5          
  Text 6           

• Line 2 defines three variables. All are character length 1, and have a default initial value of blanks.
• By default, blank lines that would result from attempting to write blanks are suppressed. Therefore, the line 4 does not cause any blank lines to be written.
• The skip statement always writes blank lines, so line 6 generates a blank line.
• Line 8 allows the write statement to write entirely blank lines to the list.
• Line 10 writes three blank lines.
• Line 13 sets blank lines off again.
• Line 14 generates a blank line.
• Line 16 does not generate blank lines.

Summary

• Use new-line to begin a new line or to lock a specific line in place. It can prevent horizontal scrolling of any individual line.
• Use new-page to generate a page break, to turn titles and headers on or off, change the line count or line size between pages, or to send output to the spool.
• Use skip to generate blank lines in the output. skip to line sets the output position to a specific line.
• Use back to return to the top of a page, or to the beginning of a group of lines.
• Use position to specify the next output column.
• Use set blank lines to allow blank lines to be created by writing variables that contain blanks.

Q&A

Workshop

The Workshop provides two ways for you to affirm what you've learned in this chapter. The Quiz section poses questions to help you solidify your understanding of the material covered and the Exercise section provides you with experience in using what you have learned. You can find answers to the quiz questions and exercises in Appendix B, "Answers to Quiz Questions and Exercises."

Quiz

1. What statement can you use to overwrite the same line?
2. When would you want to use skip sy-linct instead of new-page if you want a footer?

Exercise 1

Explain the flow of control in the following program, and how it works.

Listing 16.7  top-of-page, position, and skip

report zty1607.
data n type i.
do 4 times.
    do 4 times.
        position sy-index.
        write 'A'.
        enddo.
    add 1 to n.
    skip to line n.
    enddo.

top-of-page.
    n = sy-linno.

The code in Listing 16.7 produces the following output:

   AAAA
   AAAA
   AAAA
   AAAA

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