ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP - Reference → Processing Internal Data → Internal Tables → Processing Statements for Internal Tables → DELETE itab

DELETE itab - itab_lines

Short Reference

Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54

Syntax


... itab [USING KEY keyname] [FROM idx1] [TO idx2] 

                 
           [WHERE log_exp|(cond_syntax)] ...

Extras

1. ... USING KEY keyname

2. ... [FROM idx1] [TO idx2]

3. ... WHERE log_exp

4. ... WHERE (cond_syntax)

Effect

To delete more than one row, at least one of the additions FROM, TO, or WHERE must be specified. USING KEY keyname is used to determine the table key to which the additions refer.

If more than one of the additions are specified, those rows are deleted that result from the intersection of the individual additions.

Addition 1

... USING KEY keyname

Effect

The USING KEY addition can be used to specify a table key in keyname used to carry out the processing. The specified table key influences the order in which the table rows are accessed, and the evaluation of the remaining conditions.

If the primary table key is specified, the processing behaves in the same way as when no key is explicitly specified. If a secondary table key is specified, the order in which the rows are accessed is as follows:

Sorted key specified
The rows are processed by ascending row number in the secondary table index
Hash key specified
The rows are processed in the order in which they were inserted into the table.

Notes

Unlike the processing of a hashed table when a primary key is used, a preceding sort using the statement SORT has no influence on the processing order when a secondary hash key is specified.
If a secondary table key is specified, any WHERE condition also specified must be optimizable. Otherwise a syntax error occurs or an exception is raised.

Example

See Deleting Rows Using a Key

Addition 2

... [FROM idx1] [TO idx2]

Effect

If you use these additions, only the table rows from row number idx1, or up to row number idx2, are taken into account in the table index used. If only FROM is specified, all rows of the table from row number idx1 up to and including the last row are taken into account. If only TO is specified, all rows in the table from the first row up to row number idx2 are taken into account.

If the addition USING KEY is not used, or the primary table key is specified in keyname, the additions FROM and TO can only be used for index tables. In this case, they refer to the row numbers of the primary table index.

If a sorted secondary key is specified in keyname after USING KEY, the additions FROM and TO can be used for all table types and refer to the row numbers of the secondary table index.

idx1 and idx2 are numerical expression positions of operand type i. The following restrictions apply:

If the value of idx1 is less than or equal to 0, it is set to 1 in the LOOP statement and causes a runtime error in every other statement. If the value of idx1 is greater than the total number of table rows, no processing takes place.
If the value of idx2 is less than or equal to 0, the LOOP statement is not carried out and in every other statement it leads to a runtime error. If the value of idx2 is greater than the number of table rows, it is set to the number of table rows.
If the value of idx2 is less than the value of idx1, no processing takes place.

Addition 3

... WHERE log_exp

Effect

Static WHERE condition. All rows are processed for which the condition after WHERE is met. If a static WHERE condition is specified, the row type of the internal table must be statically identifiable. WHERE can be specified for all table categories.

A logical expression log_exp can be specified after WHERE, in which the first operand of each relational expression is a component of the internal table. Any comparison expression and the predicate expression IS INITIAL can be specified as relational expressions. Other predicates cannot be specified. The components of the internal table must be specified as individual operands and not as part of an expression. Parenthesized character-like data objects cannot be used to specify a component dynamically here. The remaining operands of a relational expression are general expression positions at which any suitable individual operands or expressions can be specified, but no components of the internal table. The specified components can have any data type. The relevant comparison rules apply to the evaluation.

When standard tables are accessed without a secondary key being specified, the access is not optimized. This means that all rows of the internal table are tested for the logical expression of the WHERE addition.

When using a sorted key or a hash key (that is, when accessing a sorted table, a hashed table, or a secondary table key), an attempt is made to optimize the access as described under Optimization of the WHERE Condition. If the following prerequisites are not met:

the entire logical expression (or a part of the expression) can be transformed to a key access,

the transformable part of the logical expression has the same result as the resulting key access,

no optimization takes place when a sorted table or a hashed table is accessed using the primary table key. Any access using a secondary table key produces a syntax error or exception. In the part of the logical expression relevant for the optimization, the static WHERE condition cannot specify any duplicate or overlapping keys. Duplicate key components can, however, be specified in the part of the logical expression whose relational expressions do not make a contribution to the optimized access.

Notes

When using a WHERE condition, note that the comparison rules for incompatible data types apply when comparing incompatible data objects. Here, the data types involved determine which operand is converted. If the additions WITH TABLE KEY and WITH KEY of the statement READ are used or if the appropriate keys are specified in table expressions, however, the content of the specified data objects is always converted to the data type of the columns before the comparison. This can produce varying results.
If possible, all operands of the logical expression should be in compatible pairs, so enabling the WHERE condition to be optimized.
If a comparison expression with a selection table is specified after IN as a logical expression, note that the expression at the initial table is always true and then all rows are edited.

Addition 4

... WHERE (cond_syntax)

Effect

Dynamic WHERE Condition cond_syntax can be specified as a character-like data object or standard table with character-like row type that, when the statement is executed and with the following exceptions, contains the syntax of a logical expression (in accordance with the rules of the static WHERE condition) or is initial. The following are not supported in a dynamic WHERE condition:

The syntax in cond_syntax is, as in the ABAP Editor, not case-sensitive. When an internal table is specified, the syntax can be distributed across multiple rows. If cond_syntax is initial when the statement is executed, the logical expression is true. Invalid logical expressions raises an exception from the class CX_SY_ITAB_DYN_LOOP.

Security Note

If used wrongly, dynamic programming techniques can present a serious security risk. Any dynamic content that is passed to a program from the outside must be checked thoroughly or escaped before being used in dynamic statements. This can be done using the system class CL_ABAP_DYN_PRG or the predefined function escape. See Security Risks of Input from Outside.

Note

The dynamic WHERE conditions is not evaluated for a blank table for optimization reasons. Therefore, if an internal table is blank, and a logical expression has errors, no exception is raised.

Example

Deletes all rows in an internal table from row 4. The result is the same as in the example for APPEND ... SORTED BY. The column seatsfree is not required by the SELECT statement but is filled by the program. For this reason, the associated syntax check warning is hidden by the appropriate pragma.

PARAMETERS: p_carrid TYPE sflight-carrid, 
            p_connid TYPE sflight-connid. 

DATA: BEGIN OF seats, 
        fldate TYPE sflight-fldate, 
        seatsocc TYPE sflight-seatsocc, 
        seatsmax  TYPE sflight-seatsmax, 
        seatsfree TYPE sflight-seatsocc, 
      END OF seats. 

DATA seats_tab LIKE STANDARD TABLE OF seats. 

SELECT fldate, seatsocc, seatsmax 
       FROM sflight 
       WHERE carrid = @p_carrid AND 
             connid = @p_connid ##too_many_itab_fields 
       INTO TABLE @seats_tab. 

LOOP AT seats_tab INTO seats. 
  seats-seatsfree = seats-seatsmax - seats-seatsocc. 
  MODIFY seats_tab INDEX sy-tabix FROM seats. 
ENDLOOP. 

SORT seats_tab BY seatsfree DESCENDING. 

DELETE seats_tab FROM 4.