A Practical Guide to Modern ABAP, ABAP SQL, CDS, and RAP for SAP S/4HANA and ABAP Cloud

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Learn the ABAP that SAP teams write today, from your first class to a tested order service and a complete RAP sales order app.

ABAP runs the business logic of SAP systems: the orders, deliveries, invoices, stock movements, and reports companies rely on every day. When a business needs SAP to do something specific to it, someone writes ABAP. This book helps that someone be you.

ABAP has changed a great deal. Old code full of MOVE statements, header lines, and FORM routines has given way to a modern, expression-oriented, object-oriented language with inline declarations, constructor expressions, ABAP SQL, first-class unit testing, Core Data Services, and RAP. This book teaches that modern ABAP from the ground up, and also shows you the classic ABAP you will still meet, so you can read it, maintain it, and modernize it.

What's inside

• What SAP, S/4HANA, the SAP BTP ABAP environment, and ABAP Cloud are, and how ABAP Development Tools (ADT) in Eclipse work
• Data types, inline declarations, constants, operators, string templates, and control flow with COND and SWITCH
• Internal tables from classic operations to table expressions, VALUE, FOR, REDUCE, FILTER, and CORRESPONDING
• The ABAP Dictionary: domains, data elements, structures, and database tables with currency and quantity fields
• Methods, function modules, classes, interfaces, inheritance, and polymorphism
• Class-based exceptions, message classes, and T100 messages
• Clean ABAP, design patterns, and dependency injection
• ABAP Unit, test doubles, and the SQL test double
• Strings, dates, times, time stamps, PCRE regular expressions, and conversions
• ABAP SQL: SELECT, joins, aggregates, host expressions, changing data, the LUW, locks, and performance rules
• Core Data Services view entities: associations, annotations, parameters, calculations, aggregations, and access control
• Calling HTTP APIs and working with JSON and XML
• RAP: business objects, behavior definitions, EML, validations, determinations, actions, draft, projections, OData V4 services, and SAP Fiori elements
• Classic reports, selection screens, ALV, and dynpros — so you can maintain existing systems
• Debugging, short dumps, ATC, SQL trace, and profiling; clean core, transports, and abapGit

One running example, start to finish. You write the software for Tarnbrook Outdoor Gear, a fictional wholesale distributor of outdoor equipment that has just moved to SAP S/4HANA. It grows from a single price calculation into a pricing engine, an order service with clean error handling and unit tests, a CDS data model, and a complete sales order app built with RAP and SAP Fiori elements.

Current and honest. Features that need a specific ABAP release are labeled, classic-only constructs are clearly marked, and anything that varies between systems or SAP trial offerings is flagged rather than guessed. There are no invented statistics. Every chapter includes examples, Tips, Notes, Warnings, practice exercises with selected solutions, and Key Takeaways. You need access to an SAP system to run the code — for example the SAP BTP trial if it is available to you, or a company sandbox.

Format: PDF, 540 pages (A4), linked table of contents and bookmarks. English. First Edition, 2026. Published by thenexbooks. This book is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by SAP SE. SAP, ABAP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Fiori, and SAP BTP are trademarks of SAP SE.

Table of Contents

Part I — Getting Started

• Ch 1 · What Is ABAP? SAP, S/4HANA, ABAP Cloud, and Where ABAP Runs
• Ch 2 · Setting Up: ABAP Development Tools, Your System, and Your First Program
• Ch 3 · Data Types, Variables, Constants, and Inline Declarations
• Ch 4 · Operators, Expressions, Strings, and String Templates
• Ch 5 · Control Flow: IF, CASE, Loops, COND, and SWITCH

Part II — Core Language

• Ch 6 · Internal Tables I: Table Kinds, Keys, and Classic Operations
• Ch 7 · Internal Tables II: Table Expressions, VALUE, FOR, REDUCE, FILTER, and CORRESPONDING
• Ch 8 · Structures and the ABAP Dictionary: Domains, Data Elements, and Tables
• Ch 9 · Modularization: Methods, Function Modules, and Legacy Subroutines
• Ch 10 · Object-Oriented ABAP I: Classes, Objects, Visibility, and Constructors

Part III — Robust ABAP

• Ch 11 · Object-Oriented ABAP II: Inheritance, Interfaces, and Polymorphism
• Ch 12 · Exceptions and Messages: TRY, CATCH, CLEANUP, and Exception Classes
• Ch 13 · Clean ABAP: Naming, Design Patterns, and Dependency Injection
• Ch 14 · Unit Testing with ABAP Unit and Test Doubles
• Ch 15 · Strings, Dates, Times, Regular Expressions, and Conversions

Part IV — Data and Services

• Ch 16 · ABAP SQL I: SELECT, Joins, Aggregates, and Host Expressions
• Ch 17 · ABAP SQL II: Changing Data, the LUW, Locks, and Performance Rules
• Ch 18 · Core Data Services I: View Entities, Associations, and Annotations
• Ch 19 · Core Data Services II: Parameters, Calculations, Aggregations, and Access Control
• Ch 20 · Calling APIs and Working with JSON and XML

Part V — The ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model

• Ch 21 · RAP Fundamentals: Business Objects, Behavior Definitions, and EML
• Ch 22 · RAP Behavior: Validations, Determinations, Actions, and Draft
• Ch 23 · Exposing a RAP Business Object: Projections, OData Services, and Fiori Elements
• Ch 24 · Classic ABAP You Will Meet: Reports, Selection Screens, ALV, and Dynpros
• Ch 25 · Debugging, ATC, Performance Analysis, and Troubleshooting Short Dumps

Part VI — Projects and Next Steps

• Ch 26 · Project: The Tarnbrook Order Service with Tests
• Ch 27 · Project: A Tarnbrook Sales Order App with RAP and Fiori Elements
• Ch 28 · ABAP Cloud, Clean Core, Transports and abapGit, and Where to Go Next

Appendices
A · Modern ABAP Syntax Cheat Sheet
B · Old-to-New Syntax Translation Guide
C · Short Dumps, Syntax Errors, and Common Pitfalls Field Guide
D · Glossary of ABAP and SAP Terms

Book details