This field is responsible for setting up columns in proper order while displaying the grid without using of saved layout. It may be useful if you don’t allow your users to save their own or global grid layouts, so then the grid looks always the same for them. Personally I leave this almost always empty, but if needed just simply use INTEGER values to setup correct sorting. The demo program that can be found in Figure 11 can be used to see the difference between standard sorting and own one. 

Figure 11 ZDEMO_AIN_CL05 COL_POS

Own sorting firstly takes care about positions of columns from field catalog, then it displays the rest. If I would not pass parameter I_STRUCTURE_NAME then only this fields which are in table FCAT would appear on the screen.

Figure 12 ZDEMO_AIN_CL05 Own Sequence

Figure 13  ZDEMO_AIN_CL05 Standard sequence

This field is one of the basic ones in field catalog. It contains the fieldname of internal table that will be used in our grid. Although LVC_T_FCAT is standard table, then this field should be treated as key field, as in fact it is. If you fill this field manually, then please remember to put the field names in UPPER CASE.

You have to also remember that if field catalog will not contain all fields from the table and you don’t pass the dictionary name to parameter I_STRUCTURE_NAME of SET_TABLE_FOR_FIRST_DISPLAY method, then it will only display this fields, which are in field catalog. 

In Figure 14 you can see that, the field catalog is created manually with only field names inside. I also do not pass I_STRUCTURE_NAME parameter, so then only field catalog will be used to prepare the display of internal table. As I haven’t filled anything in there beside the name of the field, the output will be really poor. We will have data displayed in our grid, but without any descriptions in header, without any formatting or search helps.

Figure 14 ZDEMO_AIN_CL06 Field catalog with only field names

Figure 15 ZDEMO_AI_CL06 Results

The name of this field suggest to put here an internal table name, but it seems that it has no function at all. When SAP fills field catalog automatically, then value of this field is set to ‘1’. You can completely omit this field, as if you fill it then nothing will happen, even if you use different values for each field in field catalog.

Figure 16 ZDEMO_AIN_CL07 Tabname filled

When you have a field that contains an amount, for example net value of an sales order, then in order to show it correctly in the grid you should fill or this field with an value of currency key (one of entries from TCURC table). You can leave this field of course empty and in many case you will, especially if you use CFIELDNAME instead. 

In many situations changing the of currency here will not make difference to the output, but there are some exceptions, for example JPY (Japanese Yen) don’t have decimal places. Figure 17 displays value of 42 294 whereas the internal value of field is 422,94. If we use ZDEMO_AIN_CL08 program with USD currency then as you seen in Figure 18, the value shown is equal to 422,94. Both outputs are correct as long as the currency of the corresponding line is the same as in field catalog.

Figure 17 ZDEMO_AIN_CL08 Output using JPY

Figure 18 ZDEMO_AIN_CL08 Output using USD

That’s why the CFIELDNAME is very handy to use in that situations where you have different currencies for different rows.

Although the SAP name of this field says: “Field name of internal table field”, then I haven’t found any usage of this field. It’s also not filled by SAP when you use SALV for creating field-catalogs. It may be that this field is not used at all.

Round can be used for decimal fields that have no assigned QFIELDNAME or CFIELDNAME fields. Its purpose is to move decimal places left or right. If you want to move decimal places left, then you have to put there positive numbers, if you want to move decimal places right, then use negative numbers.

Example when you use 0 as round, you’ll get the normal full numbers, the display of the field hasn’t changed.

Figure 29 ZDEMO_AIN_CL12 Results using 0 as P_ROUND value

Now the same program is run with 3 that is inserted into ROUND. You can notice that instead of 2 571,25 you can see 2,5723, so the comma sign was moved left by 3 positions.

Figure 30 ZDEMO_AIN_CL12 Results with 3 as P_ROUND value

Also changed output is visible when you use negative values. This time -5 was used. You can see on image below that instead of 2 571,25 you can see 275 225 000.

Figure 31 ZDEMO_AIN_CL12 Results with -5 as P_ROUND value

In each case the value in the internal table was the same 2 571,25.

CFIELDNAME can be read as currency field name. When you have in your internal table a field that represents the currency for the amount stored in a field kept under FIELDNAME in field catalog, then you should place its name here. The output of the cell will be then based on a currency key kept in the same row of the internal table, in the corresponding field. 

In the sample program ZDEMO_AIN_CL09 you can see that I passed to the filed catalog CFIELDNAME as ‘CURRENCY’ which is one of the columns of table SFLIGHT, that keeps currency key for field PRICE.

Figure 19 ZDEMO_AIN_CL09 CFIELDNAME filled

 As data in this table didn’t contained a line with JPY, I’ve changed in SE16 the currency key for one of the rows in order to show you the difference in output.

Figure 20 Changed entry of SFLIGHT table in SE16

As the output of the PRICE column depends now on the currency key stored in CURRENCY column, then you can see in the first row that the price is without decimal places, as it should be for Japanese Yen, and in the next rows as we have USD then we see two decimal places.

Figure 21 ZDEMO_AIN_CL09 results

QFIELDNAME has the same meaning for quantity fields, like CFIELDNAME for amount fields. This means that we can setup in which column of internal table the information about unit of measure is kept. On the base of that information, data can be displayed differently in each row, as in comparison to QUANTITY the unit is not set for the whole column. In program ZDEMO_AIN_CL11 I’ve setup column DISTID to be used as QFIELDNAME for DISTANCE.

Figure 27 ZDEMO_AIN_CL11 FCAT with QFIELDNAME

As you can see in the Figure 27, the quantity is displayed differently on first and second row. This means that our field catalog setting is working correctly.

Figure 28 ZDEMO_AIN_CL11 Results using QFIELDNAME

QUANTITY field is very similar to CURRENCY. The difference here is that you don’t keep currency key here, but unit of measure, for example M for meters or KG for kilograms. Again to show you the difference in output I’ve modified a bit the table entries, this time field DISTANCE from SPFLI table, where I’ve included decimal places for first row.

Figure 22 Changed entries of SPFLI table in SE16

Now to see the differences, please run program ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 using following units: PMR, DEG, M & empty.

Figure 22 displays the values with three decimal places as PMR is setup to be displayed exactly like this.

Figure 23 ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 Results using PMR unit

Figure 23 shows the results when I used DEG unit which shows. In default this unit is set to have one decimal place. As you can see there everywhere where DISTANCE field has less or the same number of decimal places then it’s always shown with one decimal place (even, if after comma there is an 0). In case the quantity value contains more decimal places, like on the first row, then the value is displayed fully as written into internal table.

Figure 24 ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 Results using DEG unit

The same situation you can see if you use meters. No decimal places are visible in the rows for which the value doesn’t have any decimals, but if it’s the case then the full value is displayed.

Figure 25 ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 Results using M unit

At last I have run ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 without using any unit. As expected the internal value is displayed exactly like stored in internal table, so with four decimal places.

Figure 26 ZDEMO_AIN_CL10 Results without filling unit

This field is used to setup exponent number display for floating point decimals (F) fields. Although it’s not that commonly used field type for display, then it’s important to know that you can manipulate how the field is displayed in ALV grid.

For example, the picture below, shows the results of the ALV output when EXPONENT field was set to 2.

Figure 32 ZDEMON_AIN_CL13 Results with P_EXP parameter value set to 2

On next picture the results of the ALV output when EXPONENT field was set to 3.

Figure 33 ZDEMO_AIN_CL13 Results with P_EXP parameter value set to 3

As you have noticed the value 2 572,25 that you can find in the internal table, will be shown differently but it’s showing exact the same number.