XSDBOOL BOOLC SPACE & INITIAL

Below code snippet shows the difference between a string of initial state and a string of length 1 with blank value masquerading as abap_false boolean value.

As of ABAP release 740 SP08, xsdbool function can be used to get rid of such ambiguity.

DATA(lv_cstring_false) = boolc( 1 LT 0 ).

IF lv_cstring_false EQ abap_false.

  BREAK-POINT. "not called

ENDIF.

DATA(lv_xsdbool_false) = xsdbool( 1 LT 0 ).

IF lv_xsdbool_false EQ abap_false.

  BREAK-POINT.  "called

ENDIF.

IF lv_cstring_false IS INITIAL.

  BREAK-POINT.  "called

ENDIF.

Inbuilt functions help the developer to write more compact code and get rid of helper variables.

Example taken from keyword documentation. Instead of declaring a boolean variable and using IF-ELSE-ENDIF block to fill it based on contents of sy-batch, inbuilt function can be used.

PARAMETERS word TYPE c length 30. 

DATA result_tab TYPE cl_abap_docu=>search_results. 

cl_abap_docu=>start( 

  EXPORTING word           = word 

            no_dialog      = boolc( sy-batch IS NOT INITIAL ) 

  IMPORTING search_results = result_tab ). 

  

  

If specific methods are expecting values like Y,N instead of X,space, translate function can be used inline.

DATA lv TYPE string.

lv = boolc( 1 GT 2 ).

DATA(lv_flag) = translate( val = lv from = ' X' to = 'NY' ).

WRITE / lv_flag.

lv = boolc( 1 LT 2 ).

lv_flag = translate( val = lv from = ' X' to = 'NY' ).

WRITE / lv_flag.

NOTE: abap_false loses its blank when converted to the type string. This is heavy.