Top 10 books to learn SAP ABAP
Many connections asked us for best resources or books to learn SAP. So we decided to start with SAP ABAP and find out what are the best resources to learn SAP ABAP.
While writing this blogpost I wondered, how people spend thousands of dollars in SAP Certified classes just to scratch the module little bit, while there is so much knowledge packed content available on internet for literally few bucks.
We talked with many experienced consultants about how they learn ABAP apart from initial entry level courses/classes. And this blogpost is the result of the answers we got. In this blogpost we have curated list of top 10 books to learn SAP ABAP.
Someone aspires to be a Techno Functional consultant should must read this book. Someone starting in SAP as a ABAP consultant must give a read to this book as it will help clear basic concepts. It will further help oneself in understanding complex level topics.
Below are the points discussed in the book:
• Taking your first steps.
• Create ABAP Dictionary Tables and Objects
• Create programs in a flash with the ABAP Editor
• Define variables for calculations
• Create and modifying character strings
• Learn to debug your programs
• Perform calculations with quantities, currencies, date, and time fields
• Learn Open-SQL
• Create program flow control and logical expressions
• Build selection screens
• Manage and modify internal tables
• Modularization and programs
2. ABAP Development for SAP HANA
This will help you to build SAP HANA optimized ABAP applications. If one want to learn how ABAP programming is changed in HANA, then you can definitely give this book try.
What you will learn:
- SAP HANA
- ABAP database connectivity (ADBC)
- ABAP-managed database procedures (AMDP)
- SQL and SQLScript
- Data modeling
- Core data services (CDS)
- Native SQL and ABAP SQL
- Business object processing framework (BOPF)
- ABAP Test Cockpit
- Runtime statistics and analysis
- SAP BTP, ABAP Environment
3. Practical guide to SAP ABAP: designing development debugging
“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan
This quote tells us that how we can learn from others, people who put decades of hard work into pages of book. And by just reading these books if you can gain the years of knowledge then why not read as much as possible.
This book dive little deeper into ABAP. it will teach you right approach of debugging, how to use SAP data dictionary in right way, expert ABAP development techniques.
Get this book here.
4. ABAP Cookbook: programming recipe for everyday solution
This book will help you find answer to complex programming issues in persistence programming, interface programming, security & tracing techniques.
What you will learn with this book:
- String processing techniques
- Dynamic and reflective programming
- ABAP and Unicode
- Database programming
- Transactional programming
- XML processing in ABAP
- Web services and programming with the ICF
- Email programming
- Security programming
- Logging and tracing
- Interprocess communication
- Parallel and distributed processing with RFCs
Get this book here.
Also read: Currencies in the SAP ECC and their impact on organizational structure
5. SAP HANA SQL Script programming
This book will teach you the complete SQL script programming.
- Role and use cases of SQL script programming
- Become expert in SQL script programming
- SQL script practical applications
- ABAP managed database procedures (AMDP)
- Debugging techniques to analyze SQL script
Get this book here.
6. SAP ABAP Programming for beginners
This is one video course from Udemy. We don’t find video formats good source of learning for life long knowledge, because there are several reasons like if you watch something in video that time you literally see things happening and you left with zero interest doing it again. Very rarely you will rewatch any video. When in need it is hard to find right topic to watch again.
On the other hand, when you read books it urges you to follow them in system. It is easy to carry and refer at any point of time in any device. When you stuck anywhere, you know where to look into book. Usually books are referred again and again and it truly helps you absorbing the knowledge. Anyway, still we found this course useful and below are the things you will learn:
As mentioned in the course name this is for beginners.
- How to write & modify ABAP program
- Learn to build Reports, Interfaces, Includes, Forms, FM etc.
- Practical step by step examples to write programs
7. SAP UI5 The comprehensive guide
Now this is the need of hour for every ABAP Consultant to learn few things about SAP UI5. This book will help you understand UI5 from basic (Hello world, example) to advance (deep dive).
What you will learn:
- Design and build apps
- MVC
- Models and data binding
- OData
- CRUD and REST
- Debug and test
- App deployment
- Eclipse
- SAP Web IDE
- SAP Fiori
- SAP HANA Cloud Platform
8. What on earth is an SAP IDOC
No matter how advanced APIs are nowadays. But one thing is clear that IDOCs are not going anywhere in near time. one of the most convincing evidence is, IDOC is still most searched term on google, related to SAP. So you can understand how extensively IDOCs are used across modules. No matter in which module or area of SAP you are working, you will always be in touch with IDOCs (this was the response from most of the consultants we talked to).
This book will help you to get started with IDOC. It will touch every aspect of IDOC that you should know. It will make you enough knowledgeable to handle IDOC issues or to build IDOC based interfaces.
What will you learn:
- Fundamentals of Inbound & Outbound IDOC interfaces and configuration
- Learn how to build interface with ALE & EDI
- Troubleshoot common post implementation challenges
- Quick reference guide to common IDOC transaction codes and reports
As name suggest this book is for Associate consultant, who already spend some years in writing ABAP programs. This book will introduce you to the latest ABAP techniques using practical examples. Tools available for import data from and to different environments, tools for manipulating XML, building stunning UI5 interfaces.
What you will learn:
- Create stable and error-free ABAP programs
- Leverage new ABAP concepts including object-oriented programming(OOP) and Model-View-Controller (MVC)
- Learn to add custom code to your existing SAP program
- Speed up your ABAP programs by spotting bottlenecks
- Understand techniques such as performance tuning and optimization
- Develop modern and beautiful user interfaces (UIs) in an ABAP environment
- Build multiple classes with any nesting level
we don’t have too much material available so far to learn ABAP for cloud. This books stands out if someone wants to deep dive into ABAP in Cloud. You will find out how ABAP is changed in cloud. End to end guide to build SAP FIORI Apps. How to connect on-premise and cloud systems with external APIs.
What you will learn:
- ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse
- SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment
- ABAP RESTful application programming model
- Application development
- Backend services
- SAP Fiori
- Consuming APIs
- Identity and access management
- Application lifecycle management
- Monitoring and security
11. ABAP Development for SAP S4HANA
The way ahead is S4 and so every ABAPer has to align and upskill thyself to new functions of S4. This book will bring you upto the speed it will introduce you to new ABAP functionalities like ODATA, BOPF, Core data Services. It will teach you to build new applications on S4.
So these are 10 (+1 bonus) books/resources we found must read for every Consultant who wants to have enrich career in SAP ABAP Module. All of this material is so cheap compared to the value they are providing. What you can learn reading even one book can be equivalent to years of work, if you try to learn these things on your own.
We often find that people will blow off money buying meaning less stuff but feel guilty to invest in learning. Many will run out of date skills and compromise on pay checks, but never try to learn new cutting edge skills.
There are many innovations happening every day, each passing day making hundreds of old technologies, software making out of date. We cannot be doing everything or track all the changes and that’s where books help us to catch up the speed.
Let’s end this post with the quote of Jeanette Winterson
“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.”
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