Now, that's why I answered in the blog discussion ABAP News for 7.40, SP08 - FOR Expressions , with the question if expressions really make sense in that case ...
The answer to the above question "how much functional ABAP is too much" should be:
You use functional ABAP for two reasons:
- you can code easier
- your programs become better readable
In the moment, one of the above breaks, you don't use functional ABAP, but split into several statements
Of course this is also a question of taste, your skills and your human reader's skills.
I'm using functional ABAP productively, but I don't overdo it (as in some examples demonstrating the capabilities).
A typical all day example goes as follwos. What looks better?
DATA language TYPE string.
IF sy-langu = 'D'.
language = 'DE'.
ELSE.
language = 'EN'.
ENDIF.
cl_abap_docu_external=>get_abap_docu_for_adt(
EXPORTING
language = language
IMPORTING
html = DATA(html) ).
or
cl_abap_docu_external=>get_abap_docu_for_adt(
EXPORTING
language = COND #( WHEN sy-langu = 'D' THEN `DE` ELSE `EN` )
IMPORTING
html = DATA(html) ).
Clearly the second, I got rid of helper variable language and the IF block. It was much easier for me to write that down because I coded the condition where I need it and the code is much better readable than in the old style.
Other typical example for language dependency:
DATA text TYPE string.
IF sy-langu = 'D'.
text = `Hallo`.
ELSE.
text = `Hello`.
ENDIF.
DATA(html) = `<html><body>` &&
text &&
`</body></html>`.
vs.
DATA(html) = `<html><body>` &&
COND #( WHEN sy-langu = 'D' THEN 'Hallo' ELSE 'Hello' ) &&
`</body></html>`.
KISS!
Its the little things that count ...
