ABAP Keyword Documentation → ABAP Programming Guidelines → Structure and Style → Comments
Choosing the Language
Other versions: 7.31 | 7.40 | 7.54
Background
The natural language that has established itself worldwide for computer programming is English. This
is because the language elements in all significant programming languages have been taken from English
and their syntax based on English grammar. ABAP is no exception. In fact, efforts have been made to
guarantee correct English by giving additions of related statements different names, even if they have
the same meaning. Well-known examples include the (now obsolete) additions VARYING
and VARY of the statements DO and WHILE. Here, ABAP can even be viewed as a subset of the English language.
Rule
Write program comments in English
Write all comments in ABAP programs in English only, so that as many readers as possible can understand them and benefit from them.
Details
English comments are a basic prerequisite for distributed development at an international level. There are other good reasons for using English as the comment language:
- If names are in English, the statements of an ABAP program can be considered (with a little good will) to be English sentences. For the reader, English comments are best suited for the source code. If comments in another language were used, this would result in a continuous switching between the languages, which would be exhausting even for readers who can speak the languages used.
- Frequently, the unwanted retelling comments are very similar to the described ABAP statements if they are written in English. This way, the author quickly realizes that his comment is superfluous.
Exception
Technical terms that originate from country-specific legislation (such as "Abgeltungssteuer" in German) or specific abbreviations (such as DÜVO) cannot be translated meaningfully or would no longer be recognizable after translation. Such terms should be placed in quotation marks and not be translated into English. In this case, it should be noted that country-specific characters can be replaced with 7-bit ASCII characters. The goal of the above rule is to enable as many users a possible to follow the program flow. This is still possible if non-IT terms are worded in another language.
Note
This rule applies regardless of the original language chosen.
Bad example
The following source code shows a typical example of German comments, mixed with English terms, which usually do not even follow the required notation or terminology.
CREATE OBJECT splitter_h
EXPORTING
parent = help_container
rows = 1
columns = 2.
CREATE OBJECT splitter_v
EXPORTING
parent = container_left
rows = 2
columns = 1.
Good example
The following source code shows the above source code with English comments, as set out in the above rule.
CREATE OBJECT splitter_h
EXPORTING
parent = help_container
rows = 1
columns = 2.
CREATE OBJECT splitter_v
EXPORTING
parent = container_left
rows = 2
columns = 1.
The goal of this example is to show the difference between German and English comments. If more meaningful
names had been chosen,
that is splitter_horizontal instead of splitter_h, and so on, comments could be dispensed with altogether, thus complying with the following
rule.