sav es eh oO OPTIMIZE -- NESTED IN ABAP i A VTAlex Tumanov cd SAP ABAP Developer Nested loops are one of the classic performance killers in ABAP programs — especially when dealing with large datasets. If you don’t optimize them properly, you could end up with hours-long runtimes, table locks, or even system dumps. In this post, let’s dive into: ¢ Why nested loops are dangerous ¢ How to detect performance bottlenecks ¢ Smart techniques to replace or optimize nested loopsAlex Tumanov wet: SAP ABAP Developer Why Are Nested Loops Problematic? A simple nested loop looks harmless: LOOP AT It_header INTO Is_header. LOOP AT It_item INTO Is_item WHERE header_id = Is_header-id. "Do something ENDLOOP. ENDLOOP. But if: ¢ It_header has 10,000 entries ¢ It_item has 100,000 entries You are performing up to 1 billion comparisons! Even worse on a database level: it can lead to full table scans or unindexed reads.Sa. Alex Tumanov ad SAP ABAP Developer Detecting Bottlenecks Use SAT (Runtime Analysis) or ST05 (SQL Trace) to: ¢ Identify slow code sections ¢ Analyze nested loop impact e¢ Measure improvement after refactoring Pro Tip: Look for "high call counts" and "long duration" entries in SAT traces.Alex Tumanov wet: SAP ABAP Developer Techniques to Optimize Nested Loops 1. Use Hash Tables (READ TABLE WITH KEY BINARY SEARCH or sorted tables) Replace inner loops with a READ TABLE on a hashed or sorted table: SORT It_item BY header_id. LOOP AT It_header INTO Is_header. READ TABLE It_item INTO Is_item WITH KEY header_id = Is_header-id BINARY SEARCH. IF sy-subrc = 0. " Process Is_item ENDIF. ENDLOOP.Alex Tumanov re SAP ABAP Developer Or define It_item as a HASHED TABLE from the start:Alex Tumanov cd SAP ABAP Developer 2. Pre-Group Data Group items by header before looping:Alex Tumanov wet: SAP ABAP Developer 3. Use FOR ALL ENTRIES Smartly Fetch needed data with FOR ALL ENTRIES instead of nested selects inside loops: SELECT * FROM item INTO TABLE It_item FOR ALL ENTRIES IN It_header WHERE header_id = It_header-id. Make sure to check IF It_header IS NOT INITIAL. before using FOR ALL ENTRIES!Alex Tumanov ad SAP ABAP Developer 4. Avoid Repeated Database Access Don’t trigger SELECTs inside loops unless absolutely necessary. Prefetch everything you need.Alex Tumanov cd SAP ABAP Developer Real-World Case In one project, nested loops over 5000 headers and 50,000 items resulted in a runtime of over 5 minutes. By: ¢ Switching inner tables to HASHED ¢ Prefetching data via FOR ALL ENTRIES ¢ Replacing nested loops with single reads The runtime dropped to under 10 secondOr Alex Tumanov es hes) NED V0) 01-18 Bonus: Use ABAP /7.4+ Features With modern ABAP syntax, operations can be even faster and cleaner: DATA\(result) = It_item[ header_id = Is_header-id ] OPTIONAL. IF result IS NOT INITIAL. " Process ENDIF. Or use LOOP AT GROUP when processing grouped data!Sa) Alex Tumanov ” SAP ABAP Developer Key Takeaways e Nested loops are costly — rethink your approach. e Use sorted/hashed tables and efficient READs. e Prefetch data smartly, avoid loop-time SELECTs. e Measure, optimize, and test continuously.