Video Lesson 5.1: Read SAP Database Tables

In this lesson you will learn how to retrieve information on database tables and how to read data from them. An overview of techniques that allow you to access multiple database tables will also be covered.

• SQL is the abbreviation of Structured Query Language, a language that enables define, change, and read access to database tables.
• Every relational database system has a native SQL, which is unfortunately database-specific.
• In contrast Open SQL is an SAP-defined, database-independent SQL standard for the ABAP language.

You use the Open SQL statement SELECT to program database read access.

The SELECT statement contains a series of clauses, each of which has a different task:

• Amongst other things, the SELECT clause describes which fields of the table are to be read.
• The FROM clause names the source (database table or view) from which the data is to be selected.
• The INTO clause determines the target variable into which the selected data is to be placed.
• The WHERE clause specifies the columns of the table that are to be selected.

For information about other clauses, refer to the keyword documentation for the SELECT statement.