Skip to content

Variants and Selections

Most reports allow entering selections before report execution. Selections limit the result set of the report to extract only records that match the selection.

In SAP a selection variant can be created in the input screen of an ABAP report. The purpose of a variant is to save selection settings on your input screen and to minimize the necessity to enter selections when running a report.

Note

Manual selections and variants can be combined. Manual selections overwrite any selections in the variant.

Choose a Variant

Choose a variant from the drop-down-list Variant.
When creating a new variant in SAP after creating the extraction, click [ ] to load the new variant.

Variants-Section

The selections of the variant are not displayed in the Selection Screen section of the window. To see the definition of a variant, open the variant in SAP.

Tip

You can define the variant at runtime by using a corresponding parameter in the extraction URL, see Extraction Parameters.

Available Filter Options

You can enter filter values directly in the Report extraction type or define runtime parameters to pass values during runtime.

The Report extraction type offers the following filter options:

Type Operator Description
Single Compare data to a single specified value.
(not) like pattern True if data values do (not) contain to the specified value.
(not) equal to True if data is (not) equal to the specified value.
at least True if data is greater than or equal to the specified value.
more than True if data is greater than the specified value.
at most True if data is less than or equal to the specified value.
less than True if data is less than the specified value.
Range Check if the data is (not) within a specified range of values.
(not) between True if data values do (not) lie between the 2 specified values.
List Check if the data is part of a specified list of values.
element of True if data values are part of the list.

Edit Selections

The Selection Screen in the main window of the component corresponds to the input screen in SAP.

Note

Some selection fields only have a technical name and no description. To understand which field corresponds to a field in SAP, open the input screen in SAP. Click on a selection field and press the function key F1 to display the technical name of the selection field.

Follow the steps below to edit selection fields and filter data:

  1. In the subsection Selection Screen, click [Edit] next to the field you want to edit. The window “Edit selection” opens.
    Sections
  2. Click [Single], [Range] or [List] to add a corresponding filter, see Filter Options.
  3. In the column Sign , select Include to add the filtered data to the output or select Exclude to remove the filtered data from the output.
    edit-selections
  4. In the column Option , select an operator, see Filter Options.

  5. In the column Value, enter values directly into the input fields Low and High or assign existing runtime parameters to the selection fields .

    Note

    When runtime parameters are available, you can use the icon button next to the input field to switch between static values ( ) and runtime parameters ( ).

  6. Click [OK] to confirm your input.

  7. Click [Load live preview] in the main window of the extraction type to check the result of your selection. If runtime parameters are defined, you are prompted to populate the parameters with actual values.

Note that edited selection fields overwrite the selection fields in the variant.

Tip

If you use multiple selection parameters, it is more efficient to create a variant in SAP.

Data Format

Use the following internal SAP representation for input:

  • Date: The date 01.01.1999 has the internal representation 19990101 (YYYYMMDD).
  • Year period: The year period 001.1999 has the internal representation 1999001 (YYYYPPP).
  • Numbers: Numbers must contain the leading zeros, e.g., customer number 1000 has the internal representation 0000001000.

Warning

Values accept only the internal SAP representation.
Input that does not use the internal SAP representation results in error messages. Use the internal SAP representation. Example: 

ERPConnect.ABAPProgramException: RfcInvoke failed(RFC_ABAP_MESSAGE): Enter date in the format \_.\_.\_

Last update: November 19, 2024