Question How many types of reports are there in ABAP & what is the difference between them?

There are 2 type of reports. They are: 1. Interactive report and Classic reports In classic reports, we can see the output in single list where as in interactive reports we can see the output in multiple list. Answer In ABAP, there are a total of 7 types of reports. They are: Classical Interactive Logical Database ABAP query ALV Reports (ALV stands for ABAP List Viewer) Report Writer/Report Painter Views (There are different types of views also) Classical Reports These are the most simple reports. Programmers learn this one first. It is just an output of data using the Write statement inside a loop. Classical reports are normal reports. These reports are not having any sub reports. IT IS HAVING ONLY ONE SCREEN/LIST FOR OUTPUT. Events In Classical Reports. INTIALIZATION: This event triggers before selection screen display. AT-SELECTION-SCREEN: This event triggers after processing user input still selection screen is in active mode. START OF SELECTION: Start of selection screen triggers after processing selection screen. END-OF-SELECTION: It is for Logical Database Reporting. Interactive Reports As the name suggests, the user can interact with the report. We can have a drill down into the report data. For example, Column one of the report displays the material numbers, & the user feels that he needs some more specific data about the vendor for that material, he can HIDE that data under those material numbers & when the user clicks the material number, another report (actually sub report/secondary list) which displays the vendor details will be displayed. We can have a basic list (number starts from 0) & 20 secondary lists (1 to 21). Events associated with Interactive Reports are: 1. AT LINE-SELECTION 2. AT USER-COMMAND 3. AT PF<key> 4. TOP-OF-PAGE DURING LINE-SELECTION. HIDE statement holds the data to be displayed in the secondary list. sy-lisel : contains data of the selected line. sy-lsind : contains the level of report (from 0 to 21) Interactive Report Events: AT LINE-SELECTION : This Event triggers when we double click a line on the list, when the event is triggered a new sublist is going to be generated. AT PFn: For predefined function keys...

AT USER-COMMAND : It provides user functions keys. TOP-OF-PAGE DURING LINE-SELECTION :top of page event for secondary list.

Logical Database Reports Logical database is another tool for ABAP reports. Using LDB we can provide extra features for ABAP reports. While using LDB there is no need for us to declare Parameters. Selection-screen as they will be generated automatically. We have to use the statement NODES in ABAP report. If there are many tables the Performance will be slow as all the table data will be read from top node to bottom node . ABAP Query Reports ABAP query is another tool for ABAP. It provides efficency for ABAP reports. These reports are very accurate. Transaction Code : SQ01 The advantage with ABAP QUERY is logic required for classic & interactive reports system design automatically 80%. For ABAP QUERY handle these SQ01 ; QUERY SQ02 : INFOSET OR FUNCTIONAL AREA SQ03: USER GROUP. Report Writer Key Concept : Super users & end users can use Report Painter/Report Writer tools to write their own reports. Giving them the ability to report on additional fields at their discretion shifts the report maintenance burden to them, saving SAP support groups time & effort normally spent creating & maintaining the reports. Instead of using ABAP code to write a report in FI & CO, many users build a Report Painter/ Report Writer library using transaction MC27. However, this workaround has some drawbacks. Little known transaction GRCT solves these problems in most cases, & eliminates the need to use transaction MC27. ABAP Report Types ABAP report types are those ones available in some report's attributes screen, i.e. : Executable program Function group (containing function modules) Include Interface pool Class pool Module pool Subroutine pool Also ALV means ABAP List Viewer. Most convenient way to use it is through reuse library (cf. transaction se83) available from release 4.6 of SAP R/3. ALV is available in two modes: list & grid. List mode is good old list processing with standard functionalities, & grid mode is using a new OCX object displaying grids.