About Debugging- Part1

About Debugging in SAP :

The objective of this document is aimed at explaining the concept of SAP debugger types and tricks.I assume that this will be a helpful for my fellow readers.

what are the types of SAP debugger:

1. Classic debugger
2. New debugger (after NetWeaver 04)

What are the limitations of classic debugger :

1. Debugger shares the context data with application being debugged and vice versa , meaning      Debugger appears in the same SAP GUI window as the application being debugged.

2. Not all ABAP code can be debugged :-using classic debugger it is not possible to debug the conversion exit’s and field exits also not possible to debug statements like CALL SCREEN and CALL DIALOG

In fact may be sap don’t want to make the master of classic debugger disappoint so they have built a new debugger as  a Different tool and provided option to switch between them.

Selecting the New ABAP Debugger as the default debugger tool

In earlier versions before netweaver 04 classic debugger will be selected by default and in after versions of netweaver new debugger is selected by default. If not to make new abap debugger as default use the following steps

1. Open abap editor.

2. From the menu select Utilities->Settings->User specific Settings.

3. From the User specific Settings dialogue select the Radio Button New Debugger.

What are the advantages of New debugger over Classic Debugger : 

1. It shares different context, ABAP debugger open in separate SAP GUI window.  That means when you enter “/h” in the command field of any application, the debugger window is created after the next action and it automatically gets open in separate GUI. And also we can close the debugger at any point  of time using “/hx” command from the debugger window.

Main components of the New ABAP Debugger user interface

As shown above there are 5 main components of ABAP new Debugger

◉ Process information area

◉ Control area

◉ Source code information area

◉ Desktops

◉ Tools

Process Information area :  The process information area of the user interface provides information about the status of the debugger. It includes

◉ Session number (1) in attachment

◉ Debug setting/session type (/hs) in attachment where as

        HTTP- indicates HTTP debugging.

        RFC->destination indicates debugging of an RFC module at the specified destination.

Control area : Standard features for execution control (step into, step over, return, continue) in the New ABAP Debugger are similar to those in the Classic ABAP Debugger. New debugger also provides shortcuts for the same.

◉ step into  -> F5

◉ step over -> F6

◉ Return     -> F7

◉ Continue -> F8

Source code information area : This will show information about source code. Information includes main programe name, include name, screen number and values of system variables such as sy-tabix and sy-subrc

Desktops and tools: here we will be able to see the code, Variable Fast Display. We can configure the desktops to

your needs and switch to specialized desktops for special debugging tasks (such as comparing two variables or analyzing an internal table in detail).

As we can see in below image we will be able to see 7 standard desktops are available Desktop 1, Desktop 2, and Desktop 3, Standard, Structures, Tables, Objects, etc.

7 standard desktop