ABAP SQL preserve OR pad trailing spaces

Question

I am trying to find a way to preserve a space within SQL concatenation.

For context: A table I am selecting from a table with a single concatenated key column. Concatenated keys respect spaces. Example: BUKRS(4) = 'XYZ ' , WERKS(4) = 'ABCD' is represented as key XYZ ABCD .

I am trying to form the same value in SQL, but it seems like ABAP SQL auto-trims all trailing spaces.

Select concat( rpad( tvko~bukrs, 4, (' ') ), t001w~werks ) as key, datab, datbi 
    from t001w 
       inner join tvko on tvko~vkorg  = t001w~vkorg
       left  join ztab on ztab~key = concat( rpad( tvko~bukrs, 4, (' ') ), t001w~werks ) "This is why I need the concat

    

• rpad( tvko~bukrs, 4, ' ' ) in this example returns XYZ , instead of XYZ , which leads to concatenated value being XYZABCD , rather than XYZ ABCD .
• lpad seems to work just fine (returning XYZ ), which leads me to believe I'm doing something wrong.
• SQL functions don't accept string literals or variables (which preserve spaces in the same circumstances in ABAP) as they are non-elementary types.

Is there any way to pad/preserve the spaces in ABAP SQL (without pulling data and doing it in application server)?

Answer 1

The trailing spaces seem to be ignored in OpenSQL/ABAP SQL, as they are with ABAP fixed-length character variables.

I simplified your example to extract the line Walldorf plant :

These ones don't work (no line returned):

SELECT * FROM t001w
    WHERE concat( 'Walldorf ' , 'plant' ) = t001w~name1
    INTO TABLE @DATA(itab_1).

SELECT * FROM t001w
    WHERE concat( rpad( 'Walldorf', 1, ' ' ), 'plant' ) = t001w~name1
    INTO TABLE @DATA(itab_2).

This one works, using concat_with_space :

SELECT * FROM t001w
    WHERE concat_with_space( 'Walldorf', 'plant', 1 ) = t001w~name1
    INTO TABLE @DATA(itab_3).

General information: ABAP documentation - SQL string functions