What is Table Description Generator?

Introduction:

When you read this article for the first time, you may feel that the title is wrong or there is some error in typing. Is there anything called “Table Description Generator” in ABAP?

The answer to the above question is YES, we have the utility called “Table Description Generator” in ABAP. Even I was not aware about it until I came across it.

Let’s see what it’s all about and its usage in detail.

What is Table Description Generator?

It Generate Structure Description of given Table for Higher-Level Programming Language. Based on the input data, the program generates structure descriptions from the ABAP/4 Dictionary. This data is displayed on the screen; it can also be written to a file of the operating system if a file name or a model for the file name is specified. 

The set of tables to be processed can be defined by entering a table name, by specifying a command file name which is then searched for table names or by specifying an identifier in table TSRCG. Currently, C, PL/1, and COBOL are available as programming languages on selection screen of this program.

It is mainly used for generating the structure descriptions of tables or structures from the ABAP/4 Dictionary in a higher-level programming language.

Let’s look at a simple example to understand it better.

Go to SE11 and type Table name of which description you want to use in higher level programming language.

Click on Table Description Generator as shown in above screenshot.

Click on execute and you will get the following output.  

This can be then used in your C Program. I am not sure at as of now on how much it will be useful but it’s seems very interesting one.

There is difference between Table Description Generator and Table Maintenance Generator. First gives us the Table/Structure description to be used in higher level programming language while the second is used for maintaining the table entries.