COLLECT

Syntax: COLLECT wa INTO itab.

COLLECT is a statement which is similar to APPEND, the differences are :

• The COLLECT statement checks weather the work area record already exists with same key field value (the key field must be of type C, N, D, T).
• If yes, it will add the numerical fields to the sum total of existing records in ITAB.
• If no, it will append or add a new record.

Example program on collect

REPORT demo_int_tables_COLLECT .

DATA: BEGIN OF line,
 col1(3) TYPE c,
 col2(2) TYPE n,
 col3 TYPE i,
 END OF line.

DATA itab LIKE SORTED TABLE OF line
 WITH NON-UNIQUE KEY col1 col2.

line-col1 = 'abc'. line-col2 = '12'. line-col3 = 3.
COLLECT line INTO itab.
WRITE / sy-tabix.

line-col1 = 'def'. line-col2 = '34'. line-col3 = 5.
COLLECT line INTO itab.
WRITE / sy-tabix.

line-col1 = 'abc'. line-col2 = '12'. line-col3 = 7.
COLLECT line INTO itab.
WRITE / sy-tabix.

LOOP AT itab INTO line.
 WRITE: / line-col1, line-col2, line-col3.
ENDLOOP.

The list output is:

  1

  2

  1

abc 12 10

def 34  5

The example fills a sorted table. The first two COLLECT statements work like normal insertion statements. In the third COLLECTstatement, the first line of itab is modified. The following diagram shows the three steps: