Secondary indexes for internal tables

In this recipe, we will see the new concept of secondary keys/index within internal tables. This lets you optimize your programs when accessing data residing within an internal table.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we will create a program that will store all data of table VBAK into an internal table. Then we will use the secondary key in order to fetch a record pertaining to a given order number, aufnr. The primary emphasis of this recipe is on the definition and usage of a secondary key for internal tables.

How to do it...

For creating a program using secondary index in internal tables, follow the steps below:

1. We first declare a type ty_vbak based on the database table vbak. We create two keys for this table type. The first is a non-unique primary key having vbeln as the key field. We also create a non-unique sorted secondary key sec_key having one field aufnr. An internal table it_vbak is defined based on the type ty_vbak. In addition, a work area wa_vbak...