abap-performance-hana

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name: abap-performance-hana description: ABAP performance best practices for S/4HANA and HANA database systems.Use when writing or reviewing ABAP code on HANA-based systems.IMPORTANT: First use the SAP system info tool to check the system type — if the system is ECC or runs on a traditional database (Oracle, DB2, MSSQL), load the abap-performance-ecc skill instead. Covers code pushdown, CDS views, AMDP, advanced SQL, and HANA-optimized patterns. argument-hint: '[ABAP code to optimize on HANA]' user-invocable: true disable-model-invocation: false

ABAP Performance — S/4HANA / HANA Database

These rules apply to SAP S/4HANA systems or any ABAP system running on HANA DB.

Before using this skill: Call the SAP system info tool. If the system is ECC on a traditional DB, use the abap-performance-ecc skill instead.

Core philosophy on HANA: Push data-intensive operations to the database. HANA is a columnar in-memory DB optimized for set-based operations, aggregations, and complex SQL. Let it do the heavy lifting. Keep ABAP for business logic, authorization, and exception handling.

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Code Pushdown — The #1 Rule

Move data-intensive operations to the database layer.

Push down to HANA:

• Aggregations (SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX)
• Filtering (WHERE clauses — the more selective, the better)
• Sorting (ORDER BY)
• JOINs (HANA handles complex multi-table JOINs efficiently)
• String operations and arithmetic in SQL
• CASE expressions / conditional logic on data
• Grouping and HAVING
• Window functions (OVER/PARTITION BY)
• UNION / INTERSECT / EXCEPT

Keep in ABAP:

• Complex business logic with many branches
• Authority checks, messages, exceptions
• Small dataset processing where pushdown overhead exceeds benefit
• Operations requiring ABAP runtime features (RFC calls, file I/O, etc.)

Avoid:

• Reading all rows to ABAP and filtering/aggregating in loops
• Using internal tables as intermediate storage for what SQL can do in one statement
• Multiple sequential SELECTs that could be a single JOIN

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Database Access

SELECT Patterns

• Select only the fields you need. Never SELECT * in production.

  SELECT matnr, maktx FROM mara INTO TABLE @DATA(itab).
  

• Always use a WHERE clause. Always use @ escaped host variables.

• Use JOINs aggressively — HANA handles complex JOINs very well, even 5+ tables.

  SELECT m~matnr, t~maktx, p~werks, p~ekgrp
    FROM mara AS m
    INNER JOIN makt AS t ON t~matnr = m~matnr AND t~spras = @sy-langu
    INNER JOIN marc AS p ON p~matnr = m~matnr
    LEFT OUTER JOIN mvke AS s ON s~matnr = m~matnr
    WHERE m~mtart = @material_type
    INTO TABLE @DATA(materials).
  

• Use aggregate functions and GROUP BY — let HANA calculate:

  SELECT werks, SUM( labst ) AS total_stock, COUNT(*) AS item_count
    FROM mard
    WHERE matnr = @matnr
    GROUP BY werks
    INTO TABLE @DATA(stock_by_plant).
  

• Use CASE expressions to push conditional logic to the DB:

  SELECT matnr,
         CASE mtart
           WHEN 'FERT' THEN 'Finished'
           WHEN 'ROH' THEN 'Raw Material'
           ELSE 'Other'
         END AS type_text
    FROM mara
    INTO TABLE @DATA(materials).
  

• Use string functions in SQL:

  SELECT matnr, CONCAT( matnr, CONCAT( ' - ', maktx ) ) AS display_text
    FROM mara
    INNER JOIN makt ON makt~matnr = mara~matnr AND makt~spras = @sy-langu
    INTO TABLE @DATA(display_data).
  

• Use FOR ALL ENTRIES when JOINs aren't possible. Always check driver table is not empty.

• Use UP TO n ROWS when you only need limited results.

• Use subqueries where they simplify logic:

  SELECT matnr, maktx FROM mara
    WHERE matnr IN ( SELECT matnr FROM marc WHERE werks = @plant )
    INTO TABLE @DATA(plant_materials).
  

CDS Views

• Prefer CDS views for complex data models. They are the primary code pushdown mechanism on HANA.
• CDS views are reusable, testable, and automatically optimized by HANA.
• Use CDS for: complex joins, calculated fields, aggregations, associations, access control.
• Consume CDS views in ABAP via SELECT FROM zcds_view.

AMDP (ABAP-Managed Database Procedures)

• Use AMDP for very complex calculations that must run entirely on HANA.
• AMDP gives you access to full SQLScript (HANA's procedural SQL language).
• Use when: complex multi-step transformations, heavy string processing, graph operations, or when CDS is insufficient.
• AMDP is NOT portable to other DBs — use only when you're certain the system stays on HANA.

Avoiding Redundant DB Access

• Never SELECT the same data twice. Read once, reuse.

• Use READ TABLE on internal table buffer instead of SELECT SINGLE in a loop:

  SELECT matnr, maktx FROM makt WHERE spras = @sy-langu INTO TABLE @DATA(texts).
  " later:
  READ TABLE texts WITH KEY matnr = current_matnr INTO DATA(text_line).
  

• On HANA, even redundant DB access is faster than on traditional DBs — but it's still wasteful and adds network overhead.

Table Buffering

Buffering matters less on HANA than ECC because HANA is in-memory. But it still helps for:

• Reducing network round-trips between app server and DB server

• Avoiding query parsing overhead for tiny lookups

• Use SELECT SINGLE on buffered tables — reads from buffer. UP TO 1 ROWS bypasses buffer.

  " good — uses buffer
  SELECT SINGLE * FROM t001 WHERE bukrs = @bukrs INTO @DATA(company).
  " bad — bypasses buffer
  SELECT * FROM t001 UP TO 1 ROWS WHERE bukrs = @bukrs INTO @DATA(company).
  

• JOINs, aggregates, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, subqueries bypass the buffer.

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Internal Tables

Table Type Selection

Same rules as any ABAP system — this is ABAP runtime, not DB:

• HASHED: O(1) lookup. Large tables, unique key, read-heavy, filled once.
• SORTED: O(log n) lookup. Non-unique key, range access, incremental fill.
• STANDARD: O(n) unless sorted + binary search. Small tables or sequential.

" good — O(1) lookup
DATA materials TYPE HASHED TABLE OF mara WITH UNIQUE KEY matnr.
READ TABLE materials WITH TABLE KEY matnr = input INTO DATA(mat).

Loop Optimization

• Use ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<fs>) for fastest loop processing.
• Use WHERE on LOOP — especially on SORTED tables.
• Avoid nested loops O(n*m). Use HASHED lookup for inner data.
• Use FILTER for extracting subsets from SORTED/HASHED tables:

  DATA(subset) = FILTER #( sorted_table WHERE status = 'A' ).
  

Bulk Operations

• INSERT lines_of for bulk inserts.
• VALUE #( FOR ... ) and REDUCE for functional transformations.
• CORRESPONDING #( ) for structure mapping.

HANA-Specific: Consider Pushing to SQL

Before writing a complex ABAP loop with aggregation, filtering, or transformation — ask: can this be a SQL statement instead?

" ABAP way (acceptable for small data)
LOOP AT sales ASSIGNING FIELD-SYMBOL(<s>).
  AT NEW kunnr.
    total = 0.
  ENDAT.
  total += <s>-netwr.
  AT END OF kunnr.
    APPEND VALUE #( kunnr = <s>-kunnr total = total ) TO totals.
  ENDAT.
ENDLOOP.

" HANA way (better for large data)
SELECT kunnr, SUM( netwr ) AS total
  FROM vbak
  WHERE erdat >= @from_date
  GROUP BY kunnr
  INTO TABLE @DATA(totals).

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String Operations

• Use string templates | | instead of CONCATENATE.

• Avoid repeated string concatenation in loops — build a string table:

  DATA lines TYPE string_table.
  LOOP AT data INTO DATA(d).
    APPEND |{ d-field1 };{ d-field2 }| TO lines.
  ENDLOOP.
  DATA(csv) = concat_lines_of( table = lines sep = cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf ).
  

• HANA-specific: For heavy string assembly from DB data, consider doing it in SQL with CONCAT or STRING_AGG (via CDS/AMDP).

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Authorization Checks

• Check authority before expensive data retrieval:

  AUTHORITY-CHECK OBJECT 'M_MATE_WRK' ID 'WERKS' FIELD plant.
  IF sy-subrc <> 0. RAISE EXCEPTION NEW zcx_no_auth( ). ENDIF.
  SELECT ... " now fetch
  

• On S/4HANA, consider CDS access control (DCL) for row-level authorization built into the data model.

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ALV / UI Performance

• Pass data by reference.
• Use CL_SALV_TABLE for read-only display.
• For very large result sets, consider pagination.
• On S/4HANA: consider Fiori/RAP for UI instead of classical ALV.

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Parallel Processing

• aRFC for independent parallel tasks.
• SPTA framework for parallelized mass processing.
• Background jobs for very long tasks.
• HANA-specific: Before parallelizing in ABAP, check if the work can be pushed to HANA — a single efficient SQL may outperform parallel ABAP tasks.

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HANA Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Fix
SELECT *	Select only needed fields
SELECT in a LOOP	JOINs (HANA handles complex JOINs well)
Aggregating in ABAP loops	SUM/COUNT/AVG in SQL with GROUP BY
Filtering in ABAP what SQL can filter	Push WHERE to SQL
Multiple SELECTs that could be one JOIN	Combine into single JOIN statement
Nested LOOPs on STANDARD tables	HASHED lookup for inner data
Complex ABAP transformations on large data	CDS view or AMDP
String concat in loops with &&	Build string table, or push to SQL
Ignoring CDS views	Use CDS for reusable data models
UP TO 1 ROWS on buffered table	SELECT SINGLE to use buffer
Authority check after data retrieval	Check before SELECT, or use CDS DCL
Writing ABAP for what SQL can express	Push to database — always ask "can SQL do this?"