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ABAP PROGRAMMING FOR BEGINNERS & FUNCTIONAL CONSULTANTS

Day 6 & 7
Introduction to ABAP CDS
How to define CDS Views

CDS definition & SQL example

Common Annotation in CDS

Advantages & Limitation of CDS

CDS with Parameters

Extension of CDS View

How does Transport look with CDS?

How to consume CDS from ABAP Program?

Introduction to ABAP CDS

When it comes to accessing a DBMS from within an application programming; the SQL (Structured
Query Language) is our first choice.

SQL: - Three sub languages

• DDL-> Creating DB objects like tables and views and to maintain their properties such as
CREATE, ALTER and DROP
• DML-> Reading and Changing the Contents of DB table such as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and
DELETE
• DCL -> Covers the aspects of data integrity and security such as GRANT and REVOKE.

Open SQL covers mostly the DML part of SQL; Prior to ABAP 7.4 there were a lot of limitations w.r.t Open
SQL such as limited support for JOINS, No use of UNION and UNION ALL, General Restrictions such as no
usage of CASE expression, No SQL functions, No Computed Values and certain restrictions with DB views
as well.

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The basic approach of Classical ABAP programming was: -

• Keep load way from the DB.

• Get all the data that you need on the application server and
• All processing & computation will be done at ABAP layer and hence DATA-TO-CODE

So, to benefit most from SAP HANA’s capabilities its better to do extensive calculations and aggregations
on the DB itself rather than to transfer huge amounts of data onto the ABAP application server. This is a
fundamental change to the ABAP programming paradigm and hence it now it becomes “CODE-TO-DATA”
rather than the other way round.

This all restrictions related to Classical ABAP programming went away when starting with release 7.4 SAP
HANA was fully supported by ABAP systems so as to fully utilize HANA’s potentials.

As a part of CODE-TO-DATA pushdown CDS i.e. Core Data Services came into picture which can be used
for defining and consuming semantically rich data-models.

Technical Definition of CDS: -

Basically, it means that it is a group of languages like DDL, QL and DCL and semantically rich data-models
means DB views and Tables.

Broadly CDS views are of two types: -

 HANA CDS
 ABAP CDS

Features of ABAP CDS: -

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• ABAP CDS views are meant for ABAP applications and are DB-independent and they provide much
more SQL features than classical Dictionary Views as in Advanced View Building Capabilities.
• Here we don’t create any Data Model from scratch; we just define and consume them as in we
use the existing DB views and tables
• Annotations to add Semantic Information as in to connect existing tables to new technologies like
OData and UI5 and advanced joining of tables by making use of Associations.
• ABAP CDS views reside in the Application Server and is fully integrated in the ABAP Data Dictionary
but logic is processed in the DB.

ABAP CDS-related Repository Objects: -

1. DDL source
2. DCL source

How to define CDS Views & CDS definition & SQL example: - A CDS view is defined in a DDL source
which is a new type of repository object. There is no editor for DDL sources in the classical ABAP
Workbench. This new type of repository object has to be analyzed and developed in the ABAP tools for
Eclipse.

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I. Upon activation of the DDL source; two objects are created as shown above and neither of them
can be edited directly in the ABAP workbench.
II. The SQL view is visible as an object in the ABAP dictionary where it cannot be edited and it serves
as a representation of the DB object.
III. The CDS view carries more semantics than its SQL view. It is neither created on the Database nor
it is visible in the ABAP dictionary directly; but we can however consume it via Open SQL (Which
got introduced as a part of NW 7.40 SP5).

It is recommended though not technically necessary, that the name of the DDL source and the name of
the CDS view are identical. The SQL view name has to be different from the CDS entity name and like any
other Dictionary View the max length is 16 characters.

Naming rules and recommendation: -DDL Source and CDS view Name: - Max 30 characters and are unique
throughout the System.

Start creating a CDS view via ADT w.r.t DDL repository and once we have reached the Data Definition
Wizard=> Refer to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS (Creation of very first CDS view)

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewName is mandatory in every CDS view; even though SAP uses a set of predefined
annotations which are mostly optional. (View Annotation; Element Annotation)

When we activate a DDL source, the development environment sends a SQL statement to the database
to create the SQL view. This SQL statement can be also viewed. (Show the participants the steps as to how
the SQL statement can be seen)

Comparison between SE11 views and ABAP CDS Views: -

SE11 Views CDS Views

It can be created from SAPGUI or Eclipse. It can only be created from Eclipse platform
only.

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Calculated column is not possible. Calculated columns are possible as in applying

Arithmetic Expressions, Inbuilt CDS functions,
CASE Expression and so on.
Input Parameters are not possible. Input parameter are allowed as in Columns,
Calculated Columns and also for Filtering data
Only Join is possible. Join and Union both are possible.
Annotations are not possible. Annotation can be used to provide more
metadata information to individual fields and
Views.

CDS Related Tools: -

Similarly, we can see the Active Annotations as well by Right Click on DDL source at Project Explorer or
Editor Window/ Similarly we can see the Dependency Analyzer which offers a simplified view by focusing
on the dependency tree and disregarding the rest.

Data Preview allows us to analyze the data returned by CDS view without the need to implement any
SELECT statement itself. There are various options available as a part of Data Preview such as SQL console,
Filtering the data and number of entries and so on.

If we Right click on the View Name Under Views at Project Explorer Pane; Open With-> Definition => Gives
the associated CDS if it exists for navigation from SQL to CDS view.

Since CDS views were introduced as a part of NW 7.40 SP5 hence the new open SQL syntax is mandatory
when using a CDS view in a select statement.

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To use CDS in ABAP Open SQL, we can read either from SQL view or CDS view. But this may be surprising
to hear as only SQL view exists physically in the DB. So, when we read from CDS view the DB interface
replaces the name of the CDS view with the corresponding SQL view while translating Open SQL to Native
SQL statement and this is the recommended way to access CDS views in ABAP.

Alternatively, it is also possible to read from SQL view directly but this is not recommended by SAP and it
became obsolete since NW 7.50.

Show the participants the DDLDEPENDENCY table w.r.t CS view and SQL view name by giving the DDL
source name.

Show the participants a demo w.r.t CDS view with join: - Refer to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS1 =>
Note:- The table name will come into picture in case we are not using Table alias and
for the fields which are common to both tables we need to give table name else not
required and the other way is to use Table alias as well and if we are using Element
Level alias then the same will be visible for SQL view-> view fields as well.

If we give key fields, we need to keep in mind that the key fields must be contiguous and also must start
at the first position.

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If @AbapCatalog.preserveKey: true is commented then even if we specify Key at Element level in a

CDS view; the key fields for that respective SQL view will be derived implicitly from the DB tables and JOIN
conditions when the CDS view is activated. We can check for the same by navigating to corresponding SQL
view.

Refer to the below code and snapshot of SQL view: -

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewName: 'ZSYARD27_VIEW2'
//@AbapCatalog.compiler.compareFilter: true
//@AbapCatalog.preserveKey: true
//@AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #CHECK
@EndUserText.label: 'Demo on CDS with Join'
define view ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS1
as select from spfli as a
inner join scarr as b on a.carrid = b.carrid
{
// a.carrid as carrier_id,
// a.connid,
// airpfrom,
// airpto
key a.carrid as carrier_id,
key a.connid,
key carrname,
airpfrom,
airpto

The above behavior can be overwritten by the Annotation @AbapCatalog.preserveKey: true.

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The use of key comes into picture suppose when we want to use this CDS view with our Open SQL at App.
Server Level and we want to do ‘ORDER BY PRIMARY KEY’.

Common Annotation in CDS: -

ABAP Annotations: - Defines Technical and the Semantic Attributes of a CDS entity. They are
usually evaluated for every CDS object when activated by the ABAP runtime environment. ABAP
annotations can modify the behavior of Open SQL statements that access a CDS entity.

Different Groups of Annotations: -

View Annotation: - Applicable for an entire view and placed in front of the DEFINE VIEW
statement.
Element Annotation: - Annotations for an element on the Select List of a CDS view and placed in
front of or after the element. (Refer to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS)
Parameter Annotation: - Annotations for a Parameter of a CDS view and placed in front of or
after the parameter.
Extension Annotation: - Annotations for a CDS view extension and placed in front of the EXTEND
VIEW statement.
Function Annotation: - Annotations for a CDS table function. Placed in front of the DEFINE TABLE
FUNCTION statement.

The imp. ABAP annotations which exist: -

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewName Mandatory -> Specifies the SQL View Name for the
respective CDS view
@ClientHandling.type Determines the Client Dependency of the View. The
Value can be #INHERITED, CLIENT_DEPENDENT or
CLIENT_INDEPENDENT and by default the value is
INHERITED if the Annotation is not given
@Semantics.quantity.unitOfMeasure To link every amount field to a Currency Code
@Semantics.amount. currencyCode To link every quantity field to a Unit field
@AccessControl.authorizationCheck Defines the implicit access control when Open SQL is
used to access CDS view

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@EndUserText.label Available as a View or Element Annotation and the

value is limited to a length of 60 characters.

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 Concepts of character, Numeric Literals, Current Client, User, System-date and Language -> Refer
to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS

 CASE Statement -> ZSY_CDS_EXPRCASE for reference (Refer to below Diagram for Concept)

 Arithmetic Expressions -> ZSY_CDS_ARITH_EXPR for reference (Refer to below Diagram for
Concept) ->

 Concept of Type Conversion is also covered=> ABAP CDS doesn’t understand implicit Type
Conversion; we need to implement explicit Type Conversion. (Refer to ZSY_CDS_EXPRCAST)

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CDS with Parameters and also how to consume CDS views in ABAP
program
Till now we saw simple examples of CDS views which are a type of a select statement and you
could surely add ‘WHERE’ clause to filter the data. But this where clause is static with a non-
parameterized view and may not fulfill the project requirements where a user interaction is
required. So, it is absolutely possible to add ‘Parameters’ to take user input and filter out the
data from the CDS view accordingly;

We can provide the parameters to the ABAP CDS Views by adding the syntax WITH PARAMETERS
p1, p2… (Data Dictionary ABAP data types can be used while defining the parameters to the ABAP
CDS Views).

We can use the parameters p1, p2.. in CDS Views using the syntax parameter name prefixed with
a colon :p1 or parameter with $parameters keyword=> $parameters:p1

 Refer to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS3 and also navigate to SQL view and show Selection
Conditions and also show how Parameters can be used in a Select List as well as in Case
Statement, Arithmetic Expression or SQL Functions.
 Refer to ZREPORT_CDS_PARAMETERS to consume the above CDS view with Input
Parameters at ABAP using Open SQL.
 Also show the participants as in how to Call a CDS View with Parameters inside a CDS view
=> Refer to ZSYARD27_DEMO_CDS4

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To summarize, in live projects 95% of analytics needs selection screens to get user input. This is
also very important to reduce the amount of data hit by the CDS view which subsequently
improves the CDS view performance to fetch only the required data out and CDS with input
parameter is supported only from 7.40 SP8 onwards.

How does Transport look with CDS? (Refer to CDS TR as shown below)
Only Data Definition Language Source object is saved. Usually we have the same name for the
Data Definition Language Source and CDS Entity View. Therefore, we wrongly assume it is CDS
Entity View.
Give 3 different names while creating CDS View. ZCDS_DDLS, ZCDS_Entity and ZCDS_SQL and
save in the transport. You will then understand.)
The Technical Object Type created for CDS Entity View is ‘STOB’ and CDS SQL View is ‘View’ and
we can find the same in DDLDEPENDENCY table.

Advantages & Limitation of CDS

Core Data Services, in both of its variants i.e. ABAP and HANA which are basically the two
different shaping of one concept, offers an easy to understand reusable tool to help achieve code
push down. It may take a bit of a learning curve to move logic down to the database level, but

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CDS Views offer a nice way to abstract that code-pushdown process and mask it behind
something all developers are familiar with in OPEN SQL. The dual benefit of simpler and faster
code makes the discipline well worth the effort.
If we are on a system with SAP HANA underneath you can and should use CDS views and go for
the code pushdown.
If you are developing on a customer system with a non-HANA DB underneath CDS views are not
the preferred choice. If the customer is likely to switch to SAP HANA or S/4HANA soon, it might
make sense to think about applying them. Nevertheless, you have to test the things very
accurately and in case the performance. Be aware that the tests have to be done on the same
database type as on the productive system – otherwise, maybe there is a big surprise after go-
live.
Furthermore, CDS views push the logic to the client-side, because CDS views are able to
control SAP UI5 Smart Controls and SAP Fiori Elements by annotations through OData services
that can be generated from a CDS view.

Now large parts of the logic of an ABAP application can be outsourced from the ABAP code to
CDS views and therefore from the application server to the database.

Limitations of CDS
i. Cannot Debug
ii. Only one Result Set can be returned
iii. We cannot join 2 fields with Data type and length mismatches in the 2 tables. In such
scenario we need to use AMDP

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