ABAP Add New Line: CR/LF, TEXT Option, and Concatenation Methods

In SAP ABAP, you can add new lines (line breaks) to strings using specific methods. These line breaks are often represented by the Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) characters, which you can use to create new lines in your strings.

1. Using cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf (Best Practice)

The class cl_abap_char_utilities provides the constants for Carriage Return (CR) and Line Feed (LF) which are combined as CR_LF to represent a new line.

DATA: lv_string TYPE string.

lv_string = 'Hello ABAP' && cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf &&
            'This is a new line in ABAP.'.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation:
• cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf adds the newline character (\r\n).
• The && operator concatenates multiple parts of the string with the line break.

2. Using CONCATENATE with cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf

If you’re constructing a string by concatenating multiple parts, you can include a newline between them.

DATA: lv_string TYPE string.

CONCATENATE 'Hello ABAP' cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf
            'This is a new line in ABAP.' INTO lv_string SEPARATED BY space.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation:
• CONCATENATE is used to combine multiple parts of the string with CR_LF between them.

3. Using && for Concatenation with CR_LF

You can also use && to concatenate strings and include the newline character.

DATA: lv_string TYPE string.

lv_string = 'Hello ABAP' && cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf &&
            'This is another line.'.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation:
• The && operator adds the newline (CR_LF) to the string when concatenating.

4. Creating Multiline Strings Using the TEXT Option (ABAP 7.40 and Above)

In ABAP 7.40 and later, you can create a multiline string directly using the TEXT option in the DATA statement.

DATA(lv_string) = `Hello ABAP
This is a new line in ABAP.`.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation: The TEXT option allows you to define the string directly with line breaks.

5. Displaying Newlines in Reports or Logs

When you print or display strings that contain newlines, the line breaks are respected, and the text will be displayed on multiple lines.

DATA: lv_string TYPE string.

lv_string = 'Hello ABAP' && cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf &&
            'This is a new line in ABAP.'.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation: In the output, the string will be displayed on two lines due to the newline character cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf.

6. Adding a Newline at the End of a String

If you need to append a newline character at the end of an existing string, you can use the same method.

DATA: lv_string TYPE string VALUE 'Hello ABAP'.

lv_string = lv_string && cl_abap_char_utilities=>cr_lf.

WRITE: / lv_string.

• Explanation: This will append a newline at the end of lv_string.

Best Practices for Adding Newlines

Display Considerations

• Reports: When outputting strings with newlines to the screen or in logs, the newlines will naturally be respected and appear as expected.
• Web/HTML: If you’re displaying this on the web or HTML, remember that you may need to convert newlines to <br> tags.