Customer Reviews

Introduction to ABAP/4 Programming for SAP : The Complete Guide to Developing in the SAP Environment

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am currently involved with an installation project of SAP in several countries and I have had the dubious pleasure of getting exposed to the ABAP code. If you are involved with an SAP project you know the software will contain some bugs and you will also want some customization. Unfortunately, most of the programmers out there do not know your business and at times it is frustrating bridging the gap to meet the customization needs.

So the more of the programming language that you know the easier the communication will be. For example, the programmer will give you a program and if it does not meet your needs it is very helpful in being able to read through the program logic and understand what the program is doing. This book does an excellent job in explaining the commands, the syntax, giving practical examples, and highly stresses the practical rules for optimizing the program.

If you have the ability to write your own programs and play around in a development system this book is the one with which to start. It will give you the basics and beyond and is very easy to read and follow, especially with the examples.

Again, I highly recommend this book from a practical reference and also as a text book to learn how to program in SAP.

This is a good introduction to ABAP/4 programming, IF you have some experience in programming in another language AND you're familiar with the SAP environment. It covers most of the basic features of writing ABAP/4 reporting code; it doesn't cover dialog programming or SAPscript, but does have a chapter on BDC. If you aren't familiar with the Workbench -- that is, if you don't know how to create and update programs in the SAP environment -- I would recommend SAMs Teach Yourself ABAP/4 in 21 Days, by Ken Greenwood, as the place to start.

I strongly disagree with the other reviewers about this title. I find it to be weak on key SAP concepts and their practical applications. Summaries at the end of chapters are useless for they contain no reference to key topics. They do however have attempts at positive reinforcement with statements like "Congratulations! You have learned to program one of three major types of ABAP programs..."

Little attention is paid to several key ABAP concepts. For example, there is very little space devoted to distinguishing betweek data elements and data types. How do they work together? We can't learn from this book. Internal tables are glossed over in a VERY simplistic manner (i.e. the significance of the itab header line and alternatives using table work areas).

Additionally, there are numerous copy edit errors in syntax. The description of the field mask functions is one example. In several areas, the shaded note sections are just truncated and do not co! ntain the full text intended.

I also find the code snippets to be watered down too much. Instead of including real programs, the examples are often annotated with notations that indicate "functional code goes here" instead of showing a relevant example of "functional code".

There are also examples of statements that are just plain wrong. The authors state that after version 3.1, SAP has no cluster tables and then they completely dispense with the topic. In fact v4.0 still does have table clusters. This is a gross oversight.

Treatment of internal tables is very weak. For example, the current syntax for creating itabs is not defined well. They do not properly communicate the behavior of the OCCURS 0 statement in itab creation. Additionally, treatment of the CLEAR command is simply incomplete. They imply that CLEAR always works on the itab header line, which is not true. It is just not that simple and depends on whether the itab is using its own! header line or a different work area. I am also unimpres! sed with the very poor coverage of the ABAP Workbench and data dictionary. Often reference is made to a tool or an object without first defining the use of the item being referenced. I guess we are just intuitively supposed to know these things.

On the positive side, I did find good references to the more obscure options and syntax options in ABAP. There are many examples of code structures that I would not think about using. It will serve well as a reference for unusual approaches for the experienced programmer, but it DOES NOT PROVIDE ADEQUATE CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION FOR THE NOVICE.

Pass on this book.

I attended the ABAP academy and received certification. Prior to the academy I read this book. I found it to be better than nothing but other students found the ABAP Objects book to be more current. The ABAP Object book also provides a demo R3 system. This allows the student to practice at home and be more creative. Win 2000 and MS SQL 2000 are required for the demo version. Go with ABAP Objects.

Though it does say introduction to ABAP I guess I was expecting more, for instance the book dosn't even review the ABAP editor until a three page appendix in the back of the book. Many pages of the book are wasted repeating program code but never really reviewing what is going on. There never really is a mention of how to manipulate tables in this book so if you need to work with anything other then internal tables (who doesn't) you'll have to find the information elsewhere.

This book is a great primer for those who have some general programming knowlege, and who are self starters. I have gone through three other similar books, and found this to be the most useful. It will get you started, but you will quickly yearn for more meat and examples, which can be found in the next book in the series.

I have reviewed other books for ABAP. This book is an excellent collection to do ABAP programming. I have used this for my work and I recommend this for the programmers using ABAP. Some of the advanced features are not here and hope it will appear in the later versions.

I bought this book about two weeks before attending an ABAP training course. It gave me a good introduction to ABAP's commands, which gave me a head start for the class. This book is easy to read and understand for the programming novice. However, it lacks background conceptual information.

After taking the course and gaining some additional experience, I realized that this book is very simplistic and does not include many of the important command variations. Perhaps these can be found in the advanced edition of this book, which is soon to be released. Many of the program examples fail to display the most efficient methods of using certain commands. In addition, there are errors in command syntax. I believe you could get the same context quality in a cheaper, paper back publication.

Like every other book for ABAP beginners, this one only covers version 3.x of SAP. We're installing 4.6b, so I'm not sure how much it will help. If you have the 3.x version of SAP, it's not a bad book.

It is a good book as a reference, but not advisable as a tutorial.