ABAP CDS View CONCATENATE: String Concatenation in CDS

SAP ABAP CDS View – CONCATENATE (String Concatenation)

In ABAP Core Data Services (CDS) views, you can use the || operator to concatenate multiple fields or values into a single string. This is useful for formatting output, creating composite keys, or enhancing UI display.

🔹 Basic Syntax of String Concatenation in CDS

define view ZDEMO_CDS as select from sflight {
    key carrid,
    key connid,
    fldate,
    carrid || ' - ' || connid as flight_info
}

🔹 Explanation:

✅ Joins carrid and connid with " - " in between. ✅ The result will be a single text field (e.g., LH - 400).

🔹 Using CONCATENATION with CAST

🔹 If the data types differ, use CAST to avoid errors.

define view ZFLIGHT_CONCAT as select from sflight {
    key carrid,
    key connid,
    cast(fldate as abap.char(10)) || ' : ' || carrid as flight_schedule
}

✅ Ensures fldate (date) is treated as CHAR(10) before concatenation.

🔹 Using CONCATENATION in CASE WHEN

define view ZFLIGHT_CATEGORY as select from sflight {
    key carrid,
    key connid,
    case
        when price > 500 then 'Expensive: ' || carrid
        else 'Affordable: ' || carrid
    end as price_category
}

✅ Creates a dynamic label (Expensive: LH or Affordable: AA).

🔹 Key Benefits of CONCATENATION in CDS

✅ Combines fields dynamically for better readability. ✅ Useful in UI annotations (e.g., Fiori List Reports). ✅ Avoids performance overhead of joining text at runtime.