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Serialization

To do serialization use ZCL_TEXT2TAB_SERIALIZER class. Flat tables and structures are supported. In case of a structure it is serialized as one-line table.

  data lo_serializer type ref to zcl_text2tab_serializer.
  lo_serializer = zcl_text2tab_serializer=>create(
    " the below params are all optional and have defaults inside
    i_decimal_sep     = ','
    i_date_format     = 'DMY-'
    i_max_frac_digits = 5         " For floats only ! not for decimals
    i_use_lf          = abap_true " to use LF as line-break (not CRLF)
  ).
  
  data lv_string type string.
  lv_string = lo_serializer->serialize( lt_some_table ).

Serialize selected fields​

The serialize method also accepts i_fields_only param - a explicit field list to serialize. You can also pass i_keep_order = abap_true to keep serilization order according to the fields only list (by default the order is takes from the data structure).

Getting header row only​

The serializer can also create a tab-delimited string with human readable field descriptions or technical names. E.g. User Name \t Date \t Time (c_header-descriptions) or UNAME \t DATUM \t UZEIT (c_header-tech_names). This may be useful to prepend the description before the technical fields. To get such a string use method serialize_header.

  lv_string = lo_serializer->serialize_header(
    i_header_type = lo_serializer->c_header-descriptions
    i_data = lt_some_table ).
  " OR
  lv_string = lo_serializer->serialize_header( 
    i_data = lt_some_table
    i_header_type = lo_serializer->c_header-descriptions
    i_lang = 'D'
    " i_keep_order = abap_true " to respect i_fields_only order
    i_fields_only = value#( ( 'UNAME' ) ( 'DATUM' ) ) ).

Serialize as HTML​

The feature allows serialization to html table <table><tr>.... In particular this form is natively supported when pasted to Excel sheet. And in particular it is possible to mark fields as text, so that no auto conversion happen to the values. E.g. "1.1" is auto converted to a date which is not intended.

  lv_string = lo_serializer->as_html( i_text_fields = value#( ( 'CODE' ) ) )->serialize( lt_some_table ).

To see the impact of modes, check ZTEXT2TAB_BACKUP_EXAMPLE - the selection screen allows control over the html/text modes. As well it allows copying the result to the clipboard for pasting to Excel after.