CONCATENATE (ABAP Keyword)

CONCATENATE (ABAP Keyword) introduction & details

CONCATENATE

Basic
form
CONCATENATE f1 … fn INTO g.

Addition

… SEPARATED
BY h

Effect
Places the fields f1 to fn after g .

With the
fields fi (1 <= i <= n), trailing blanks are ignored, i.e. these fields are considered only to have the length STRLEN ( fi ).The return code value is set as follows:
SY-SUBRC = 0 The result fits in g
.
SY_SUBRC = 4 The result was too long for g and was only copied to g in that
length.

Example

DATA: ONE(10) VALUE ‘John’,
TWO(3) VALUE ‘
F.’,
THREE(10) VALUE ‘ Kennedy’,
NAME(20).
CONCATENATE ONE TWO THREE
INTO NAME.

Then, NAME contains the value ” John F. Kennedy
“.

Addition
… SEPARATED BY h

Effect
Inserts the separator
h between the fields fi .
Here, h is used in its defined
length.

Examples

DATA: ONE(10) VALUE ‘John’,
TWO(3) VALUE
‘F.’,
THREE(10) VALUE ‘Kennedy’,
NAME(20).
CONCATENATE ONE TWO THREE
INTO NAME SEPARATED BY SPACE.

Then, NAME has the value ” John F.
Kennedy “.

DATA SEPARATOR(4) VALUE ‘USA’.
CONCATENATE SPACE ONE
TWO THREE INTO NAME
SEPARATED BY SEPARATOR.

Then, NAME has the
value ” USA JohnUSA F.USA Ke “.
The return value of SY-SUBRC is set to
4.
Related
SPLIT, SHIFT, REPLACE, TRANSLATE,
CONDENSE

Note
Performance

You are recommended to use the key
word CONCATENATE rather than your own constructions because it is safer, more
efficient and clearer. The runtime required to append two 30-byte fields amounts
to approx. 14 msn (standardized microseconds).