Offset Concept in SAP ABAP

Most of the time in ABAP, we may have to read the part of data of a field (say X) and populate to other field (Say Y). In this case we have to use the offset concept to read the value.

Example:

SY-DATUM is the standard SAP field, which holds the current system date. The format of the date in SY-DATUM field will be YYYYMMDD.

Where,

• YYYY => Year
• MM => Month
• DD => Day

In most of the cases we may have to read the value of month form the SY-SATUM and pass to some variable. Similarly we may have to read the value of year & day.

Below is a simple SAP ABAP program which gives clear picture on how to use offset concept.

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REPORT  ZVTEST_PGM_1.

DATA: l_day(2)   TYPE c, " Day
      l_month(2) TYPE c, " Month
      l_year(4)  TYPE c. " Year

*--Print the value of Current System Date (YYYYMMDD)
WRITE:/ 'Current System Date : ' , sy-datum.

*--Use offset concept & populate the Year, Month & Day value to Local valriables

*--Year: Starting form Zeroth Position next 4 characters
l_year = sy-datum+0(4).

*--Month: Starting form fourth Position next 2 characters
l_month = sy-datum+4(2).

*--Day: Starting form sixth Position next 2 characters
l_day = sy-datum+6(2).

*--Print value of Year, Month & date which is stored in local variables
WRITE:/ 'Year  : ', l_year.
WRITE:/ 'Month : ', l_month.
WRITE:/ 'Day   : ', l_day.

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Hope post explained the OFFSET concept which we generally use in SAP ABAP.

Will share more useful articles soon.

Thanks & Regards,

Venugopal M N

SAP BI-ABAP Consultant