Keeping Trailing spaces in a file

by Joyjit Ghosh, IBM India

In few requirements I have seen that client wants to keep the trailing spaces in the file that is generated from an interface program/data extraction program. This is important for the legacy application that ultimately processes this file. 

This tip will show us how to keep trailing blanks in a file. 

REPORT  z_sn_space.

CONSTANTS: c_space TYPE syhex02 VALUE '00a0'. " Value for space

DATA: g_space TYPE string,
             l_pos type i.

TYPES: BEGIN OF ty_data,
        field1(8) TYPE c,
       END OF ty_data.

DATA: wa_data TYPE ty_data.
DATA: i_data TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ty_data.

* Get the value of a space
g_space = cl_abap_conv_in_ce=>uccp( c_space ).

wa_data-field1 = 'Joy'.
L_pos = strlen( wa_data-field1 ).
Do 5 times.

wa_data-field1+l_pos(1) = g_space.
L_pos = l_pos + 1.
Enddo.

APPEND wa_data TO i_data.

CALL METHOD cl_gui_frontend_services=>gui_download
  EXPORTING
    filename                  = 'C:\trailing_space_demo.txt'
  CHANGING
    data_tab                  = i_data
  EXCEPTIONS
    FILE_WRITE_ERROR          = 1
    NO_BATCH                  = 2
    GUI_REFUSE_FILETRANSFER   = 3
    INVALID_TYPE              = 4
    NO_AUTHORITY              = 5
    UNKNOWN_ERROR             = 6
    HEADER_NOT_ALLOWED        = 7
    SEPARATOR_NOT_ALLOWED     = 8
    FILESIZE_NOT_ALLOWED      = 9
    HEADER_TOO_LONG           = 10
    DP_ERROR_CREATE           = 11
    DP_ERROR_SEND             = 12
    DP_ERROR_WRITE            = 13
    UNKNOWN_DP_ERROR          = 14
    ACCESS_DENIED             = 15
    DP_OUT_OF_MEMORY          = 16
    DISK_FULL                 = 17
    DP_TIMEOUT                = 18
    FILE_NOT_FOUND            = 19
    DATAPROVIDER_EXCEPTION    = 20
    CONTROL_FLUSH_ERROR       = 21
    NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_GUI      = 22
    ERROR_NO_GUI              = 23
    others                    = 24
        .
IF sy-subrc <> 0.
* MESSAGE ID SY-MSGID TYPE SY-MSGTY NUMBER SY-MSGNO
*            WITH SY-MSGV1 SY-MSGV2 SY-MSGV3 SY-MSGV4.
ENDIF.

Output of the generated file: