TRANSLATE is a keyword used in SAP ABAP programming.This tutorial covers its introduction & syntax details.
TRANSLATE
Variants
1. TRANSLATE c TO UPPER CASE.
2. TRANSLATE c TO LOWER CASE.
3. TRANSLATE c USING c1.
4. TRANSLATE c FROM CODE PAGE g1 TO CODE PAGE g2.
5. TRANSLATE c FROM NUMBER FORMAT n1 TO NUMBER FORMAT n2.
Variant 1
TRANSLATE c TO UPPER CASE.
Variant 2
TRANSLATE c TO LOWER CASE.
Effect
In the field c , converts all lower case letters to upper case or all upper case letters to lower case, as specified.
Example
DATA LETTERS(3).
MOVE ‘abc’ TO LETTERS.
TRANSLATE LETTERS TO UPPER CASE.
The field LETTERS now contains ‘ABC’ .
Variant 3
TRANSLATE c USING c1.
Effect
Replaces the letters in the field c according to the contents of c1 .
If
a character in c also exists in c1, it is replaced by the letter that f
o l l o w s it in c1. If a character from c is not found in c1, it
remains unchanged.
Example
DATA: LETTERS(10) VALUE ‘abcX’,
CHANGE(6) VALUE ‘aXBY’.
TRANSLATE LETTERS USING CHANGE.
The field LETTERS now contains ‘XbcX’ .
Variant 4
TRANSLATE c …FROM CODE PAGE g1 …TO CODE PAGE g2.
TRANSLATE F TO CODE PAGE G2.
TRANSLATE F FROM CODE PAGE G1.
Effect
Performs
a character code conversion in the field F . To achieve this, the SAP
character code is determined from the conversion table G1 and a new
character code derived from G2 . You can use the Transaction SPAD to
maintain the conversion tables TCP00 – TCP02 .
Example
DATA F(72).
TRANSLATE F FROM CODE PAGE ‘1110’ TO CODE PAGE ‘0100’.
translates the contents of F from the HP character set to EBCDIC ( IBM 274).
Note
Type
I , P , F and X fields remain unchanged. Field strings and work areas
of internal tables are converted to the correct type for each
individual field. At present, table work areas (as defined in TABLES
… ) are not treated according to type, but are converted as a whole.
If necessary, declare a field string with INCLUDE STRUCTURE and then
perform a conversion.
Variant 5
TRANSLATE c …FROM NUMBER FORMAT n1 …TO NUMBER FORMAT n2.
TRANSLATE F TO NUMBER FORMAT N1.
TRANSLATE F FROM NUMBER FORMAT N1.
Effect
Performs
a number format conversion in the field F . The number formats
supported at present are ‘0000’ ( HP , SINIX , IBM ) and ‘0101’ ( DEC
alpha OSF ). Any attempt to enter formats other than these results in a
runtime error. If you omit FROM NUMBER FORMAT or TO NUMBER FORMAT , the
system number format is used for the omitted part.
Example
DATA: F TYPE F,
HEX (2) TYPE X,
NFORM LIKE TCP00-CPCODEPAGE.
…
* In /ARCHIV was stored by another platform from HEX and F.
* HEX contains the valid number format and can be read on all
* platforms.
READ DATASET ‘/ARCHIV’ INTO HEX.
READ DATASET ‘/ARCHIV INTO F.
NFORM = HEX. “Conversion of machine-independent HEX to NUMC(4)
TRANSLATE F FROM NUMBER FORMAT NFORM.
Effect
Converts the contents of F from the format NFORM of a platform to the system format.
Note
Type
I and F fields are converted. Field strings and work areas of internal
tables are converted to the correct type for each individual field.
Table work areas (as defined with TABLES … ) are treated as type C at
present and are not converted. If necessary, declare a field string
with INCLUDE STRUCTURE and then perform a conversion.
In the
interests of storing additional information for archiving purposes, you
can use the function module SYSTEM_FORMAT to display the system code
page and system number format.
Note
Performance
Converting
lower case letters to upper case letters or upper case letters to lower
case letters in a 10-byte long character field takes approx. 7 msn
(standardized microseconds).
Replacing two letters in a 10-byte long field with the variant … c USING c1 … takes approx. 9 msn.
Note
Runtime errors
TRANSLATE_WRONG_NUM_FORMAT : Invalid number format.