Question

I need to create a 2 column array in ABAP so that a program can look up a record item (defined by the letters A – ZZZ) and then return the number associated with it.

For example:

A = 1
B = 2
C = 3
…
Z = 26
AA = 27
AB = 28
…
AZ =
BA =
…
BZ =
CA =
…
…
ZZZ =

Please can you suggest how I can code this.

Is there a better option than writing an array?

Thanks.

Answer 1

you don’t need to lookup the value in a table. this can be calculated:

parameters: p_input(3) type c value 'AAA'.

data: len type i value 0,
      multiplier type i value 1,
      result type i value 0,
      idx type i.

* how many characters are there?
len = strlen( p_input ).
idx = len.

* compute the value for every char starting at the end
* in 'ABC' the C is multiplied with 1, the B with 26 and the A with 26^2
do len times.

* p_input+idx(1) should be the actual character and we look it up in sy-abcde
  search p_input+idx(1) in SY-ABCDE.

* if p_input+idx(1) was A then sy-fdpos should now be set to 0 that is s why we add 1
  compute result = result + ( sy-fdpos + 1 ) * multiplier.

  idx = idx - 1.
  multiplier = multiplier * 26.
enddo.

write: / result.

i didn’t test the program and it has pretty sure some syntax errors. but the algorithm behind it should work.