Abap Objects

The current incarnation of AbapLanguage, the language that most of the SAP R/3 system is written in (not the very core though), and which is used to write programs for SAP R/3.

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Below is an example. Disclaimer: I never wrote production ABAP code, the example below is assembled from example code I was given when I had to learn ABAP at the university. The following code was never compiled, because I don't have access to an SAP R/3 system. Plus, in newer releases, they did something to the call syntax so that you can now optionally use a less cumbersome variant. That being said, the following should be good enough to demonstrate the flavor of ABAP...

 REPORT yexample.
 * Class that wraps a "boolean" value, assigning it in
 * the constructor and providing a getter. Plus, a "main"
 * program that uses the class.
 * In other words, a pointless syntax example ;)

 TYPES: ty_boolean(1) TYPE c.
 CONSTANTS:
   co_true VALUE 'X',
   co_false VALUE SPACE.

 CLASS bool_wrapper DEFINITION.
   PUBLIC SECTION.
     TYPES: ty_boolean(1) TYPE c.
     METHODS:
       constructor
         IMPORTING
           VALUE(im_bool) TYPE ty_boolean,
       get_bool
         RETURNING
           VALUE(re_bool) TYPE ty_boolean.
   PRIVATE SECTION.
     DATA: bool TYPE ty_boolean.
 ENDCLASS.

 CLASS bool_wrapper IMPLEMENTATION.
   METHOD constructor.
     bool = im_bool.
   ENDMETHOD.
   METHOD get_bool.
     re_bool = bool.
   ENDMETHOD.
 ENDCLASS.

 * "Main" program:
 DATA:
   a_wrapper TYPE REF TO bool_wrapper,
   bool TYPE ty_boolean.
 START-OF-SELECTION.
   CREATE OBJECT a_wrapper
     EXPORTING im_value = co_true.
   CALL METHOD a_wrapper->get_bool
     RECEIVING re_value = value. 
   * "assigns" the value of "re_value" to "value" - from left to right
   IF ( value = co_true ).
     WRITE: / 'Got value true'.
   ELSE.
     WRITE: / 'Got value false'.
   ENDIF.

This, to my best knowledge, the equivalent to the following Java program:

 public class BooleanWrapper {
   private boolean value;
   public BooleanWrapper( boolean value ) {
     this.value = value;
   }
   public boolean getValue() {
     return value;
   }
   public static void main( String[] args ) {
     BooleanWrapper aWrapper = new BooleanWrapper( true );
     System.out.println( "Got value " + aWrapper.getValue() );
   }
 }

And some people think Java is too wordy...

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...had to learn ABAP at the university...

You poor, poor soul; you HadToUseCobol.

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CategoryProgrammingLanguage