SAP ABAP Program Syntax Checks

SAP ABAP Program Syntax Checks

Before activating a program you need to check if the program is syntactically correct. This can easily be done in the ABAP editor with the following tools

Syntax Check
Extended Program Check
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The menu pat is as follows

Program >>>>>> Check >>>>>> Syntax
Program >>>>>> Check >>>>>> Extended Program Check
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Syntax Check (Standard Syntax Check)

Here the syntax is checked by the system and if an error occurs the check stops and immediately an error message is displayed. Also the system suggests error correction. Any SAP ABAP program before execution needs to be Activated and before activation a Syntax check is necessary. If the program has not been checked for Syntax, and directly activated then during the activation process you have an option to ignore the errors and activate anyway. If you choose this option, the syntax errors are displayed while executing the program.

In case you are running a Syntax check on an Include program then automatically the system combines it with the TOP INCLUDE. In case the systems generates WARNINGS in the syntax check, then you can still run the program as some of the WARNINGS can be ignored. But its a good practice to correct all the warnings as they could lead to unforeseen errors and can give trouble in future SAP releases.

Extended Program Check

The extended program check does a more complete check of the program. It actually does a Syntax check on all the interfaces called from your program. All these check are excluded from the Standard Syntax check explained above. Basically there are 2 types of errors in any program

Static Errors and
Runtime Errors

The Runtime errors are not checked by the Standard Syntax Check explained above. Even the Extended Program Check is a Syntax Check for Static Errors. Sometimes in extended program check you may get warnings that cannot be corrected, the code that produces such warnings should be commented for extended check or you can put pseudo comments ("#EC). All other Warnings should be corrected before activating the program. Technically the development is not considered to be complete if the Extended Program Check shows errors/warnings.