Difference Between Select-Options and Ranges in sap abap programming

What are the difference between SELECT-OPTIONS & RANGES?

Here both SELECT-OPTIONS & RANGES works for the same purpose. They both are used for the range selection from selection screen. The main diff. between them is, while we use SELECT-OPTIONS system implicitly creates the select options internal table which contains the fields of SIGN,OPTION,LOW & HIGH. But in case of RANGES, this internal table should be defined explicitly.

Eg. to SELECT-OPTIONS :
-----------------------------------------

REPORT YARSELECT.
TABLES YTXLFA1.
SELECT-OPTIONS : VENDOR FOR YTXLFA1-LIFNR.
INITIALIZATION.
VENDOR-LOW = 1000. " It specifies the range starting value.
VENDOR-HIGH = 2000. " It specifies the range ending value.
VENDOR-OPTION = 'BT'. " specifies ranges value is in between.
VENDOR-SIGN = 'I'. "specifies both inclussive.

APPEND VENDOR.

- - - -
- - - -
SELECT LIFNR LAND1 NAME1 FROM LFA1 INTO TABLE ITAB
WHERE LIFNR IN VENDOR.

Eg. to RANGES:
-------------------------

REPORT YARRANGE.
TABLES YTXLFA1.
RANGES: VENDOR FOR YTXFLA1-LIFNR.

- - - -
- - - --
- - - -

SELECT LIFNR LAND1 NAME1 FROM LFA1 INTO TABLE ITAB
WHERE LIFNR IN VENDOR.

Here with RANGES user has to design an internal table with fields -
SIGN,OPTION,LOW and HIGH EXPLICITLY.

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Example:

select-options: bukrs for zstock-bukrs.

Should the user fill in 'ABFI' in BUKRS on the selection screen, BUKRS will look like this:

IEQABFI

This is because BUKRS is set as a table as follows:

begin of bukrs occurs 0,
SIGN(1) type c,
OPTION(2) type c,
LOW like bukrs,
HIGH like bukrs,
end of bukrs.

Now, when you create the following range, it will have the exact same fields set inside its table:

Ranges: bukrs for zstock-bukrs.

The difference is, because ranges doesn't show on the selection screen, you will have to fill it yourself, meaning you will have to fill bukrs-sign, bukrs-option, bukrs-low & bukrs-high all manually.

Some tips:
Sign is always I (for Include) or E (for Exclude)
Option can be a whole range, which includes:
EQ (Equal)
BT (Between))
CP (Contain Pattern)
So let's say you want to have the range check for all company codes not starting with AB, you will set your code as follow:

ranges: bukrs for zstock-bukrs.

bukrs-sign = 'E'. "Exclude
bukrs-option = 'CP'. "Pattern
bukrs-low = 'AB*'. "Low Value
bukrs-high = ''. "High Value
append bukrs.

Always remember to APPEND your range when you fill it, as the WHERE clause checks against the lines of the range table, not against the header line.

Hope this explains it well enough.

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What does SIGN "I" & "E" mean?

The "I" stands for Include, and the "E" for Exclude.

The easiest way to learn how the range selections work is, create the following dummy program:

report dummy.
tables: mara.
select-options: matnr for mara-matnr.
start-of-selection.
loop at matnr.
write: / matnr-sign,
matnr-option,
matnr-low,
matnr-high.
endloop.

Run this program, and fill in a lot of junk into MATNR. Fill in some includes, some excludes, some ranges, etc., and you will soon realise how the system builds ranges (select-options). Once you know that, you can fill your own ranges quickly and efficiently.