Second approach to fetch data from SAP tables without using SAP JCo

If you need to access the SAP Tables with the help of the table name and column names, then you can use the RFC RFC_READ_TABLE. It also provides external access to R/3 tables with the help of remote function calls.

The RFC_READ_TABLE is a standard SAP function module that allows external systems to read data from any SAP table remotely. This approach is particularly useful when you cannot use SAP JCo libraries but still need to extract data from SAP systems.

Required Parameters

RFC requires the following details ?

• table name (required parameter)
• number of rows to skip (optional parameter)
• maximum number of rows to be loaded (optional parameter)

Additional Optional Parameters

The RFC_READ_TABLE also supports additional parameters for more controlled data extraction ?

• FIELDS ? Specify which columns to retrieve
• OPTIONS ? Add WHERE clause conditions for filtering data
• DELIMITER ? Define field separator for the output

Example RFC Call Structure

Here is how you would structure the RFC call ?

CALL FUNCTION 'RFC_READ_TABLE'
  EXPORTING
    QUERY_TABLE = 'MAKT'          " Material descriptions table
    DELIMITER   = '|'             " Field separator
    ROWCOUNT    = 100             " Maximum rows
    ROWSKIPS    = 0               " Skip first N rows
  TABLES
    OPTIONS     = lt_options      " WHERE conditions
    FIELDS      = lt_fields       " Field list
    DATA        = lt_data         " Retrieved data

Benefits and Limitations

This approach offers flexibility in accessing any SAP table without requiring JCo installation. However, it has limitations such as a maximum of 512 characters per row and potential performance issues with large datasets. The data is returned as delimited strings that need to be parsed by the receiving application.

Conclusion

RFC_READ_TABLE provides a straightforward method to fetch SAP table data without JCo dependencies, making it ideal for lightweight integrations and quick data extractions.