Hello Automate Community!
If you are not an ABAP developer, it is possible that you have never heard of a 'Conversion Exit'.
But if you work with data extration and loading, you may have experienced some pain and frustration in finding your expected record and get no results even if you know that record exists. Then you learned to put the exact number of leading zeroes or spaces in the front to get a result or you learned the German codes for those fields. Sound familiar? This is typically because there is a conversion exit at play.
So what is a Conversion Exit?
The conversion exit is a set of 2 function modules (input and output routines) that get executed every time you interact with the field on the SAP UI.
This coding practice is very common in legacy SAP modules (FICO, MM etc) where SAP tries to show a user-friendly value on the UI, but stores it differently in the database in a normalized manner or using internal codes etc.
There are thousands of fields where a conversion exit may be defined. It is also possible for ABAP developers to create custom conversion routines as well.
In the Data Dictionary (Tcode: SE11), you can find it by navigating to the Table-> field definition -> Data Element -> Domain -> Definition
The 5 letter code defined under Routine is the Conversion exit code. The corresponding input and output function modules can be found in SE37 by replacing the string 'XXXXX' with this routine name - CONVERSION_EXIT_XXXXX_INPUT and CONVERSION_EXIT_XXXXX_OUTPUT
Here is a notorious example: Partner Functions!
So if you want to query partner functions for a given customer, you might expect these values:
However, your Query from the table KNVP returns an output like this with internal codes for the partner function.
This output will not be understandable to the business users. And because we are directly reading from the DB table, the conversion exit does not get triggered the same way if we were looking at this value in the UI.
You can force the conversion routine to execute in Studio, however it will degrade the query performance, so use this option wisely.
Here is the same output with "Conversion Exit" feature turned on.
So how do we turn this "Conversion Exit" on?
In the workspace tab, make sure you have picked all the output fields first. Then click on "Conversion Exit" in the top right.
You will see a pop-up with a warning like shown below. Then select from the available conversion exits to turn them on.
The system shows available conversion exits for your chosen output fields:
These are commonly used examples and some recommendations on how to handle these fields in Studio. Wherever possible, I recommend using the standard padding options when you see an ALPHA conversion exit, because we can avoid running the routine in SAP and not compromise on performance.
| Table / Field |
Description |
Example Value Stored in the database as |
Example Value displayed in the UI as |
Conversion Routine |
Notes / Recommendation |
| MARA-MATNR |
Material Number |
000000000000001873 |
1873 |
ALPHA |
Recommendation: Use padding options in Studio |
ACDOCA-BELNR
BKPF-BELNR |
Accounting document number |
0300000015 |
300000015 |
ALPHA |
Recommendation: Use padding options in Studio |
MARA-MEINS
ACDOCA-RUNIT |
Base Unit of Measure |
ST
CV
FA |
PC - Piece
CS - Case
°F - Fahrenheit |
CUNIT |
SAP shows the commercial unit on the UI, but stores the internal unit of measure. Tables in the T006* series have the mapping.
Recommendation: Use the Conversion exit feature in Query |
| Many tables |
Language Key |
E |
EN |
ISOLA |
Table T002 has the translation between internal language codes and the ISO standard language code.
Recommendation: Studio automatically handles it via the AFM, no need for conversion exit |
ACDOCA-KOSTL
ACDOCA-PRCTR
BSEG-KOSTL
BSEG-PRCTR
KNA1-KUNNR
LFA1-LIFNR |
Cost Center
Profit Center
Customer Number
Vendor Number |
0000005100 |
5100 |
ALPHA |
Recommendation: Use padding options in Studio |
| KNVP-PARVW |
Partner Function |
WE
AG |
SH - Ship to party
SP - Sold To Party |
PARVW |
SAP stores the German Partner function while it shows the language dependent value on the UI.
The tables TPAR &TPAUM have definitions & the language specific mapping.
Recommendation: Use the conversion exit feature in Query |
I hope this was helpful. The example script is attached.
I welcome any other examples for fields where you think a Conversion Exit is at play and causing heartache! :)
#Studio #Query
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Jayasri Varyani
SE
Precisely Software Inc.
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