An Overview of ABAP Debugger Settings and System Areas

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The ABAP Debugger contains a wealth of settings and
information about your ABAP environment that can
be extremely helpful to you during troubleshooting.
Here, you will learn what the debugger settings do
and when you can use them, as well as how to find
specialized internal system information in the
debuggers system areas.
An O ve rvie w o f AB AP D e b u g g e r
S e ttin g s a n d S yste m Are a s
A u th ro
The ABAP Debugger Settings
Select Settings !Display and change all in the
debugger menu to view the debugger settings
(see Figure 1).
As shown in Figure 2, the scope of these settings
Figure 1 The Debugger Settings
Setting Scope Can You Save It?
System debugging External session Yes
Always Create Exception Object External session Yes
Check Sorting Before READ BINARY SEARCH
Check Sorting Before PROVIDE
Internal session No
Automation Controller: Always process requests
synchronously
Internal session No
In background task: Do not process Internal session No
Update debugging External session No
Memory monitoring External session No
Figure 2 The Scope of the Debugger Settings
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is quite different. Some settings are available in the
current external session (window), while others are
only active in the current internal session and are lost
when you enter a new internal session. You can save
some settings along with current breakpoints by click-
ing on the save button ( ) in the application toolbar
of the debugger. This action makes these settings
active for all external sessions of your current logon.
Figure 3 provides an overview of when to use
these settings in your daily troubleshooting sessions.
The ABAP Debugger
System Areas
The ABAP Debugger provides a wide range of infor-
mation about the ABAP environment of the program
in general. But you can find specialized internal
information hidden in the system areas of the debug-
ger. Although most of this information is only rele-
vant for ABAP kernel developers at SAP, some of
these areas can be extremely helpful for your ABAP
troubleshooting sessions.
Figure 3 When to Use the Debugger Settings
Setting Description
System debugging In the program attributes (the radio buttons in the ABAP Editor, transaction SE38),
you can designate a program as a system program. The debugger then skips
the program if system debugging is turned off.
If you have problems that involve system programs (such as a function that cant
be accessed in the debugger), turn on this setting. You can also turn on system
debugging by entering /hs in the command field in the debugger.
Always Create
Exception Object
If you catch an ABAP exception in your program via the ABAP statement CATCH
CX_MY_EXCEPTION without specifying a reference variable to which the
exception object can be moved, you normally cant see or analyze the exception
object in the debugger.
If you turn on this setting, a Display Exception Obj. magnifier button ( ) appears
next to the exception name (as shown in the screenshot below) for examining the
created exception object:
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An Overview of ABAP Debugger Settings and System Areas
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Setting Description
Check Sorting Before
READ BINARY SEARCH
The sort order for an internal table must match the keys used in a READ BINARY
SEARCH statement. (See the ABAP keyword documentation for READ.) If the
sort order is incorrect, because the table was either never sorted or sorted with
the wrong sort key fields, the results of the READ BINARY SEARCH statement
will be unpredictable. Maybe youll get lucky and the entry will be found by chance.
However, the entry will probably not be found even if it actually exists, which can
result in nasty troubleshooting scenarios. In addition, if you suspect that the table is
not sorted correctly because the READ fails despite the fact that the entry exists, it
is difficult to prove by analyzing the possibly thousands of lines in the table.
When you turn on this setting (introduced in SAP Web AS 6.10), the system
checks the sort order of each internal table before executing the READ BINARY
SEARCH statement. If the sort order is incorrect, you get a runtime error
ITAB_ILLEGAL_ORDER that identifies the incorrect lines. For example, the
dump ITAB_ILLEGAL_ORDER contains the following error message:
In the case at hand, the rows 2 and 3 of the table
"\PROGRAM=ZBGTEST\DATA=ITAB"
weren't sorted according to the key specified in the READ statement.
Check Sorting Before
PROVIDE
Similar to the Check Sorting Before READ BINARY SEARCH setting, except for the
PROVIDE statement. The sort order of the internal tables is also critical.
Automation
Controller: Always
process requests
synchronously
This setting applies to the SAP Control Framework, which is the ABAP interface for
GUI controls such as the Tree Control, the ALV Grid Control, and the HTML Control.
For performance reasons, the events and requests for these controls are normally
queued and flushed together (asynchronously), rather than passed directly to the
GUI frontend. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which queued request is
responsible for a specific control error.
Turn on this setting to flush all control requests of a running transaction immediately
and show the resulting error. This setting influences only the internal session that
you are debugging. Because of the synchronized communication between the
backend and the GUI, the application performance degrades accordingly.
In background task:
Do not process
Sometimes you need to analyze transactional Remote Function Calls (tRFCs) that
are called with the IN BACKGROUND TASK addition, as follows:
CALL FUNCTION '' IN BACKGROUND TASK
BACKGROUND TASK function calls are registered, but not processed directly, at
the CALL FUNCTION statement. During the next COMMIT WORK statement,
these registered functions are called along with the other tRFC functions for this
logical unit of work (LUW) on the specified destination. The debugger cant follow
these RFC calls after the COMMIT WORK, because the debugger is attached to
one process.
The only way to debug these function modules is to turn on this setting. When you
turn on this setting, these tRFC modules are stored in the system for debugging
instead of being sent. Use the tRFC Monitor (transaction SM58) to analyze the
unprocessed LUWs and select Edit !Debug LUWto debug them.
Figure 3 (continued)
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Setting Description
Update debugging If your program includes a SET UPDATE TASK LOCAL statement to turn on synchronous
updates, you dont need this setting.
However, sometimes you need to analyze asynchronous updates, which are functions
that are called with the IN UPDATE TASK addition as follows:
CALL FUNCTION '' IN UPDATE TASK
These update functions are not called directly. Instead, they are part of an LUW that
is executed after the next COMMIT WORK statement. (See the ABAP keyword
documentation for IN UPDATE TASK.) This LUW is executed asynchronously in a special
update work process, perhaps even on another server. The debugger cant follow these
update modules, because the debugger is attached to one process. If you dont use this
setting, you wont see anything for update modules during debugging.
The only way to debug these function calls is to turn on this setting. When you turn on
this setting, a second debugger window pops up after the COMMIT WORK statement. It
displays the RSM13000 program (the central update handler), which launches the update
functions sequentially.
You can skip the irrelevant internal update code of the RSM13000 program. Set a
breakpoint in the update function of interest. Start debugging the application, turn on this
setting, and continue debugging until you reach the breakpoint in the update module.
Memory monitoring This internal setting is not relevant for ABAP developers. If you turn on this setting, the
system checks the memory segments in order to find memory overwrites after each
executed statement. SAP uses this setting internally to find potential kernel bugs. Turning
on this setting significantly decreases application performance.
Figure 4 Displaying the System Areas in the Debugger
Figure 3 (continued)
An Overview of ABAP Debugger Settings and System Areas
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To access the system areas, select Goto !System
Areas !Internal Information in the debugger menu.
(In SAP R/3 4.6C or earlier, select Goto !System !
System Areas.) The debugger shows a list of the avail-
able system areas, as shown in Figure 4. Either
double-click on a system area or insert the name in
the Area field to see its contents.
Figure 5 contains the most interesting system
areas and when to use them.
Figure 5 Useful Debugger System Areas for ABAP Developers
System Area Description
SMEM SET/GET a parameter stored in SAP memory. You use the ABAP statement SET
PARAMETER to set a parameter. This system area provides the parameter name
(such as GUI_IS_ON) and its content. For example:
1 GUI_IS_ON ( 1) <X>
2 GUI_HAS_ACTIVEX ( 1) <X>
MEMORIES ABAP memory. To fill ABAP memory from your program, use the following ABAP
statement:
EXPORT TO MEMORY ID <id>.
This system area allows you to view the ABAP memory, find your memory ID, and
check the content. This action is helpful in the debugger if, for example, at an
IMPORT FROM MEMORY statement you see that the memory ID is no longer
available, and you want to find out what freed it.
ITAB-TOP25 List of the 25 largest internal tables of all loaded programs (see the screenshot
below).
This system area is valuable for performing memory analysis on a program. As of
SAP Web AS 6.20, use the even more powerful Memory Inspector by selecting
Goto !display condition !memory use in the debugger menu. (Watch for an
upcoming SAP Professional Journal article on the Memory Inspector.)
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System Area Description
DATASETS List of files you created with an OPEN DATASET statement.
SCREEN Available as of SAP Web AS 6.20. Provides the screen structure (the attributes of
the screen fields) for the fields of the current screen (see the screenshot below).
Figure 5 (continued)