SAPtips4On ABAP/J2EE
Improving the Quality of Your ABAP Code
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June/July 2006 Volume IV Issue 3
Using the Code Inspector-
A Guide for SAP® Developers and Consultants
Editor’s Note: We can always
count on ABAP Editor Rehan Zaidi
to bring something substantial to
the SAPtips table, and this article
is no exception. If you are an ABAP
developer you know the value of opti-
mizing your existing code as well as
learning tips and tricks to generate
more efficient code in the future. In
this issue Rehan shows you how to
utilize SAP’s ABAP Code Inspector to
check repository objects (in terms of
performance), security, syntax, and
naming conventions. Conducting an
inspection of this type will help you
identify potential coding flaws. It will
also help you identify unnecessary or
redundant tasks that would add pro-
cessing time to your routines. Rehan
presents an overview of the Code
Inspector and demonstrates how
to call it using either a transaction
code or a menu path. He describes
the types of errors the Code Inspec-
tor may identify, and explains the
hints it may suggest for improving
the ABAP code. Having explained
the basics, Rehan then takes you
through an example of how he has
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used this tool, complete with screen
shots and “lessons learned”. What’s
next? Assemble the troops and pre-
pare for inspection.
Introduction
SAP has empowered consultants
(and users) in all areas by provid-
ing tools for checking the quality of
their work. The ABAP Workbench
is no exception. One such tool avail-
able with the ABAP Workbench is
the Code Inspector. It allows you to
check the syntax and semantic con-
sistency of ABAP programs, and also
lets you improve their performance.
The Code Inspector
lets you check ABAP
repository objects
including programs,
classes, and
function modules.
Due to the ease and control with
which you can test a large number of
programs, learning the basics of this
tool is necessary for developers and
consultants.
The aim of this article is to provide
a description of the Code Inspector
and the way it may be used to check
ABAP programs. These are some of
the questions that this article will
address:
• What are the two methods for call-
ing the Code Inspector?
• What are the errors that the Code
Inspector may identify?
• What are some of the code improve-
ment hints the Inspector may sug-
gest?
I will begin with an overview of
the Code Inspector and the benefits it
provides to developers. I’ll discuss, in Figure 1: Objects That May Be Checked
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By Rehan Zaidi, Siemens Pakistan
detail, the steps required in checking
repository objects such as ABAP pro-
grams, classes, and function groups.
Finally, I will use an example drawn
from an easy-for-all company scenar-
io to illustrate my views. I am going
to include tips learned from my per-
sonal experience and observation.
This article is intended primarily
for SAP developers. I will assume
that the reader is familiar with basic
ABAP concepts and syntax. For
more information, refer to the SAP
documentation on http://help.sap.com/.
Though the screenshots have been
taken from Release 4.7, the tips men-
tioned are relevant for later releases
as well.
The Code Inspector:
An Overview
The Code Inspector is a tool (avail-
able in the ABAP Workbench) that
lets you check ABAP repository
objects including ABAP programs,
classes, and function modules. These
checks highlight problems related to
the syntax, security, and performance
of the ABAP code. In addition, you
may also search through the code for
single words and/or patterns of ABAP
statements. The objects that may be
checked using the Code Inspector are
shown in Figure 1.
Function Groups
Programs
Classes
Interfaces
Type Groups
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June/July 2006 Volume IV Issue 3
Figure 2: The Code Inspector Output
The output (result) of the Inspector
is in the form of a hierarchy show-
ing the various check categories, as
shown in Figure 2.
The output contains three columns,
each represented by a different color
(see Figure 3), showing the number
of errors or warnings found by each
check.
Priority Color Codes Meaning
Red Error
Yellow Warning
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Green Information
Figure 3: Priority Code Colors and Their Meaning
The Code Inspector offers numer-
ous advantages to consultants and
developers:
• Instead of carrying out manual
checks for programs individually,
you may check multiple objects
by defining Object Sets. The check
may be carried out either online
or in the background (for quick
performance).
• It gives you total control over the
tests or functions to be executed.
• For exceptional situations, you may
suppress the checks for a given
statement by adding pseudo-com-
ments in your ABAP source code.
There are two ways of calling the
Code Inspector, namely via transac-
Figure 4: Accessing the Code Inspector from Transaction SE38
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tion SCI or via a menu path of the
respective repository object mainte-
nance screen. With transaction SCI,
you:
a) first create an Object Set that
specifies the programs or classes
to be checked,
b) then define a Variant for specify-
ing the checks that are to be car-
ried out, and
c) finally, create and execute an
exception that is used to gener-
ate the check results. The Vari-
ants, Object Sets, and Inspection
may be defined as local (pertinent
to one user) or global (accessible
by all users) depending on the
scenario.
On the other hand, you may also
call the Code Inspector from the
ABAP Editor (transaction SE38), the
Class Builder (transaction SE24),
and the Function Builder (transac-
tion SE37) using the menu path
shown in Figure 4.
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June/July 2006 Volume IV Issue 3

In this case, if there is no

DEFAULT Variant defined
for your user, the system uses
the global Variant DEFAULT
while carrying out the inspec-
tion.

Calling the Code In-

spector with Transac-
tion SCI
As already mentioned,
there are two ways of call-
ing the Code Inspector for
checking your ABAP code.
The more powerful option
is using the transaction code
SCI. The main screen of this
transaction is shown in Fig-
ure 5.

Before creating an inspec-

tion, you need to define
a suitable Object Set and
Check Variant. Enter a suit-
able name for your Object Set
and then click on the Create
Figure 5: Code Inspector -- Main Screen of Transaction SCI
icon. This takes you to the
screen shown in Figure 6.

Enter a description for

your Object Set. You also
need to enter suitable values
in the Object Assignment and
Object Selection areas. The
Object Assignment area lets
you define your selection by
specifying the user who cre-
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ated the objects in question,

or on the basis of the applica-
tion ID, software component,
and package. For example, if
you’d like to specify a set of
objects created by the user S_
JONES, you should enter the
same in the Person Respon-
sible field.

Figure 6: Defining an Object Set

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The Object Selection area is

used to specify the programs,
classes, and function groups
that you want to include in
your selection. On the Class-
es, Func Groups tab, enter
the criteria for selecting the
object that you would like to
check. For example, if you
would like to select all pro-
grams that begin with the let-
ter Z, you should enter Z* in
the Program field. When you
have specified your selection,
save your entries by clicking
the Save button.

Next, you need to create or

choose a suitable Variant for
your inspection. On the main
screen of transaction SCI
(Figure 5), enter a name in
the Check Variant field, and
click the Create button. This
takes you to a screen similar
to the one shown in Figure
7.

Specify a suitable name

and description for your Figure 7: Creating and Executing a Check Variant
Variant. This screen displays
the entire range of checks
and functions available in the
Code Inspector. Use the checkboxes immediately. When the inspection is played. The output of the inspection
to select the checks that you want to complete, a message “The Inspection is then displayed, as shown in Figure
include in your program Inspection. was carried out successfully” is dis- 9.
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Finally, you have to create

and execute an inspection for
your specified objects. On
the main screen of transac-
tion SCI, enter an appropri-
ate name for your inspection,
and click the Create button.
The screen appears, as shown
in Figure 8.

On this screen, enter the

name of your newly cre-
ated Check Variant, and the
Object Set, in the fields pro-
vided. Then, click the Execute
button to start the inspection Figure 8: Creating and Executing the Inspection

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Figure 9: Code Inspector Output
Checks and Functions In-
cluded in the Code Inspector
The range of checks and functions
available in the Code Inspector may
be divided into four categories. Let
us discuss them in detail.
a) Syntactical Checks
The first category deals with checks
related to the ABAP syntax. In addi-
tion to the normal ABAP correctness,
the Code Inspector also carries out
an Extended Program Check, which
includes the following:
• It checks whether the state-
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ments that call external pro-
grams (or program com-
ponents) are used in the correct
manner. Some of the statements
that fall in this category are
CALL TRANSACTION
SUBMIT
CALL FUNCTION
PERFORM IN (PROGRAM)
CALL SCREEN
SET PF-STATUS
Figure 10: Statements that Call External Pro-
gram Components
shown in Figure 10. For example,
an error is generated if a transac-
tion referred to in a CALL Trans-
action Statement does not exist.
• The Inspection function searches
for statements that could cre-
ate problems if the program is
used for different languages. For
example, statements that use
hard-coded text literals instead
of text IDs.
• It highlights any variables or
form routines that are declared
in a given program but are never
used.
• The Inspector function also looks
for statements used in an incor-
rect context. For example, a
COMMIT WORK used within a
SELECT loop would give unde-
sirable results.
b) Security Checks
The checks pertinent to this cat-
egory find statements (or constructs)
that may hamper the stability and
security of your SAP system. Typical
examples of these are:
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• Statements after which the
return code (SY-SUBRC)
must be checked. The SY-
SUBRC denotes the suc-
cess (or outcome) of an
ABAP statement. In some
cases, use of the return
code value is absolutely
necessary.
• Constructs in which
authorization checks are
essential, but are not
used.
• Statements that use
Native SQL.
c) Performance Checks
As the name implies, these
checks identify statements
(or constructs) that may lead
to a decline in the program’s per-
formance. Some of these statements
include:
• CHECK statements based on
a table field within a SELECT
loop. This reads more data than
is required, and may cause the
program to get slow.
• Statements that bypass the buf-
fers residing on the application
server.
The Code Inspector
also carries out an
Extended Program
Check.
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• Select statements that

do not have a suitable
WHERE clause. In this
case, the system may not
be able to use an appro-
priate index and may
carry out a sequential
scan on the entire table,
thus resulting in extreme-
ly long runtimes.

d) Search Functions
In addition to the checks
mentioned, the Code Inspec-
tor allows you to search for
words (tokens) or entire state-
ments in your Object Set. The
search option also allows you
to base your search on pat-
terns using wildcards such
as “+”and “*”. For searching
a word or statement in your
Object Set, create a Variant
that is comprised of one (or
both) of the search functions
(see Figure 11). The Inspec-
tion is then created and exe-
cuted as already mentioned.

There are two search func- Figure 11: Specifying a Search Function
tions available, namely token
search and statement search.
The token search function allows * represents any number of words. ation. For example, our READ state-
you to locate single words (having at For example, consider the statement ment pattern may look like:
least a length of three characters) in pattern:
your program code. When using this READ TABLE + WITH KEY +ABC+ =+
search option, the characters + and * READ TABLE + WITH KEY + = +
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have special meanings. The symbol + For the key field, the system
represents a single character within a In this case, the system searches for searches only for those fields that are
word, whereas * denotes a sequence all READ statements that find a table five characters long and have “ABC”
of characters. For example, if you row, on the basis of a single key field. in the center.
want to search for internal tables In other words, after the KEY clause,
having names ITAB1, ITAB2, etc., you may expect a table field name, Suppressing Checks for
you will write ITAB+ in the search followed by an “=”symbol and then Selected Code Statements
field. a comparison value. All READ state- When an inspection is executed, all
ments that use two or more field com- the checks selected for the specified
On the other hand, the Search parisons are omitted by this search. Variant are carried out. However, in
ABAP Statement Patterns lets you some exceptional circumstances, you
find sets of similar ABAP statements You may combine the rule men- may need to exclude a given program
within your ABAP code. In this case, tioned in the token search with the from the code inspection. If you want
the + and *may also be used to define statement search function in order to to skip a check for a given statement,
the search criteria. While search- define more powerful search criteria. you need to insert special check-spe-
ing for a statement, the wildcard + In this case, additional information is cific phrases known as pseudo-com-
denotes one word or token, whereas provided for the token in consider- ments, in the program code. Exam-

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ples are “#EC CI_NOWHERE and
“#EC CI_NOFIRST. This is inserted
at the end of the statement that is to
be skipped from the check.
In order to find out which pseudo-
comment is appropriate for a given
Figure 12: Documentation of a Code Inspector Check
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Figure 13: Creating the Z_MY_VARIANT Variant
check, click on the icon on the Vari-
ant creation screen (see Figure 7).
This displays the documentation of
the given check that mentions the
relevant pseudo-comment name, as
shown in Figure 12.
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Putting It All Together
In this section, I will use the con-
cepts presented in this article to dem-
onstrate how the Code Inspector may
be used to fulfill a simple require-
ment. Let us consider the following
scenario:
You are given the task of check-
ing the performance of all customer
programs (having names beginning
with the letter Z). In addition, you
also want to figure out how many
programs incorporate the SELECT
SINGLE statement.
In order to fulfill the requirement, a
Variant Z_MY_VARIANT is defined,
as shown in Figure 13.
The Performance Checks indicator
is selected, as the primary emphasis
of the test is on the performance of
the programs concerned. The Search
Function (Search Functs.) indicator
is also checked, and the pattern to be
searched is entered as:
SELECT SINGLE * WHERE *
An Object Set Z_MY_OBJECTS is
created, as shown in Figure 14.
Since we need a set of all programs
having names starting with Z, the
Program field in the Object Selec-
tion area is filled with Z*. Finally,
an inspection is created and executed
using the newly-created Variant and
Object Set. The output of the inspec-
tion is shown in Figure 15.
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Conclusion
In this article, I discussed the
basics of the Code Inspector and
the steps required in order to test
the quality of ABAP programs.
Then, I listed the set of checks
and functions that the Inspec-
tor supports. Finally, I discussed
a requirement that may be ful-
filled via use of this tool. I hope
that this article will be a pre-
cious resource for you, and will
help you in checking the quality
of your programs in the least
possible time.

Rehan Zaidi, Senior SAP Con-

sultant, Siemens Pakistan.
Rehan has been involved in both
ABAP development and func-
tional configuration for SAP HR
implementations at multination-
al and local companies, and also
Figure 14: Creating the Object Set Z_MY_OBJECTS has experience with SAP Work-
flow. He has contributed articles
to the SAP Professional Journal,
the HR Expert newsletter, and
to the TechRepublic Website.
He is currently working on his
first book, specifically designed
for SAP HR Users and Manag-
ers, as well as a guide for ABAP/
Workflow Consultants titled
Figure 15: Output of Inspection “201 Interview Questions on
Workflow”. Rehan is the found-
er of the Web site www.siteofSAP.
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com. Rehan’s email address is

Rehan.Zaidi@SAPtips.com. ≈

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