ABAP New Syntax Complete Course: 12 Practical Lectures

ABAP New Syntax Complete Course is a practical, step-by-step learning series for developers who want to write cleaner, safer and more maintainable ABAP. Every lecture compares classic and modern syntax, includes copy-ready examples, explains common mistakes and finishes with exercises.

Who is this course for?
Beginners learning ABAP, experienced developers modernising legacy code, S/4HANA project teams and candidates preparing for ABAP interviews.

Course learning path

1. Lecture 1: Inline declarations — DATA(...), FIELD-SYMBOL(...), inferred types and scope.
2. Lecture 2: Constructor expressions — VALUE, NEW, CONV, CAST and REF.
3. Lecture 3: Internal-table expressions — table expressions, line_exists, OPTIONAL and safe reads.
4. Lecture 4: FOR expressions — mapping and constructing internal tables.
5. Lecture 5: FILTER and REDUCE — filtering collections and calculating results.
6. Lecture 6: CORRESPONDING — MAPPING, EXCEPT and deep structure conversion.
7. Lecture 7: COND and SWITCH — expression-oriented conditional logic.
8. Lecture 8: String templates — formatting, embedded expressions and useful string functions.
9. Lecture 9: LET, EXACT and OPTIONAL — local helpers, lossless conversions and safe defaults.
10. Lecture 10: Modern Open SQL — host variables, FIELDS, joins, expressions and inline results.
11. Lecture 11: Refactoring legacy ABAP — realistic before-and-after examples with readability rules.
12. Lecture 12: Mini-project and interview practice — end-to-end exercise, review checklist and questions.

How to use this series

• Run every example in a sandbox or development system compatible with the feature.
• Compare the classic and modern versions before copying a pattern into production.
• Complete the exercises without looking at the solution first.
• Prefer readability over compressing an entire business process into one expression.
• Check your target ABAP release and language version because feature availability differs.

What “new syntax” means

ABAP 7.40 introduced important expression-oriented features including inline declaration operators and constructor expressions. Later releases expanded the language further. “New syntax” is therefore not one single version; it is a family of language improvements. The safest approach is to verify each feature in the ABAP Keyword Documentation available for your target system.

Start the course

Start Lecture 1: Inline Declarations →

Official SAP references

• ABAP 7.40 language enhancements — SAP Help Portal
• Creating objects and values — ABAP Keyword Documentation

Examples in this course are educational. Validate released APIs, data types and syntax against your own ABAP environment before production use.