preview Command Requirements

Overview

Preview data from ABAP tables or CDS views directly from the ABAP system. This command retrieves sample data rows to help developers understand table/view contents without needing to query manually.

This is the PRIMARY way to explore table and CDS view DATA.

Use Cases

Inspect table data before writing reports
Verify data in CDS views
Check sample records in staging tables
Explore unknown tables/views quickly
Validate WHERE clause filters before using in code

Command

# Preview table data (auto-detect type)
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT
abapgit-agent preview --objects ZMY_TABLE

# Preview CDS view data
abapgit-agent preview --objects ZC_MY_CDS_VIEW --type DDLS

# Preview with explicit type
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --type TABL

# Preview with row limit
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --limit 20

# Preview with offset for paging
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --offset 10 --limit 20

# Preview with WHERE clause filter
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --where "CARRID = 'AA'"

# Preview specific columns only
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --columns CARRID,CONNID,FLDATE,PRICE

# Preview multiple tables/views
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT,ZSCUSTOMER

# Vertical format (for wide tables)
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --vertical

# JSON output (for scripting/AI processing)
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --json

Prerequisite

.abapGitAgent exists with valid credentials
Table or CDS view must exist in the ABAP system

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
`--objects`	Yes	Comma-separated list of table/view names
`--type`	No	Object type (TABL, DDLS). Auto-detected from TADIR if not specified
`--limit`	No	Maximum rows to return (default: 100, max: 500)
`--offset`	No	Number of rows to skip (for paging, default: 0)
`--where`	No	WHERE clause filter (e.g., `CARRID = 'AA'`)
`--columns`	No	Comma-separated column names to display (e.g., `CARRID,CONNID,PRICE`)
`--vertical`	No	Show data in vertical format (one field per line)
`--compact`	No	Truncate values to fit columns (useful for wide tables)
`--json`	No	Output raw JSON only (for scripting)

Tasks

1. Validate Parameters

--objects must be specified
Object names are converted to uppercase automatically
--limit must be between 1 and 500 (default: 100)
--offset must be >= 0 (default: 0)
--type accepts TABL or DDLS (case-insensitive)

2. Load Configuration

Read .abapGitAgent for credentials

3. Fetch CSRF Token

GET /health (with X-CSRF-Token: fetch)

4. Make Preview Request

Endpoint: POST /preview

Request Body:

{
  "objects": ["SFLIGHT", "ZC_CDS_VIEW"],
  "type": "TABL",
  "limit": 100,
  "offset": 0,
  "where": "CARRID = 'AA'",
  "columns": ["CARRID", "CONNID", "PRICE"]
}

5. Display Results

Output

Table Data - Default (Human-readable)

Displays all columns with row count:

📊 Preview: SFLIGHT (Table)

┌──────────┬────────┬──────────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ CARRID   │ CONNID │ FLDATE   │ PRICE     │ CURRENCY│ PLANETYPE│
├──────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240201 │    422.94 │ USD     │ 747-400 │
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240202 │    422.94 │ USD     │ 747-400 │
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240203 │    445.00 │ USD     │ 747-400 │
│ UA       │ 0938   │ 20240201 │    350.00 │ USD     │ 777-300 │
└──────────┴────────┴──────────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────┘

Showing 4 of 10 rows
⚠️  Note: 3 more columns hidden (SEATSMAX, SEATSOCC, PAYMENTSUM)
   Use --columns to select specific columns
   Use --json for full data

Table Data - All Columns Fit

When table has 6 or fewer columns, display all:

📊 Preview: TADIR (Table)

┌──────────┬──────────┬───────┬────────┬────────┐
│ PGMID    │ OBJECT   │ OBJNAM│ DEVCLASS│ CTR    │
├──────────┼──────────┼───────┼────────┼────────┤
│ R3TR     │ CLAS     │ ZCL_A │ ZABAPGIT│ 000000 │
│ R3TR     │ CLAS     │ ZCL_B │ ZABAPGIT│ 000000 │
└──────────┴──────────┴───────┴────────┴────────┘

Showing 2 of 10 rows

CDS View Data (Human-readable)

📊 Preview: ZC_FLIGHTS (CDS View)

┌──────────┬────────┬───────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ CARRID   │ CONNID │ FLDATE    │ AIRLINENAME          │
├──────────┼────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240201  │ American Airlines    │
│ UA       │ 0938   │ 20240201  │ United Airlines      │
└──────────┴────────┴───────────┴──────────────────────┘

Showing 2 of 10 rows

With WHERE Filter

📊 Preview: SFLIGHT (filtered, 5 rows)

┌──────────┬────────┬──────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ CARRID   │ CONNID │ FLDATE   │ PRICE   │ CURRENCY│
├──────────┼────────┼──────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240201 │  422.94 │ USD     │
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240202 │  422.94 │ USD     │
└──────────┴────────┴──────────┴─────────┴─────────┘

WHERE: CARRID = 'AA'
Showing 2 of 2 rows

With Pagination

  Previewing 1 object(s)

  Retrieved data (Showing 11-20 of 354) — Use --offset 20 to see more

  📊 Preview: SFLIGHT (Table)
  ...

Column Selection

abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --columns CARRID,CONNID,FLDATE,PRICE

📊 Preview: SFLIGHT (Table)

┌──────────┬────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
│ CARRID   │ CONNID │ FLDATE   │ PRICE     │
├──────────┼────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240201 │    422.94 │
│ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240202 │    422.94 │
└──────────┴────────┴──────────┴───────────┘

Showing 2 of 10 rows (columns: CARRID, CONNID, FLDATE, PRICE)

Vertical Format

Useful for tables with many columns:

abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --vertical

  Previewing 1 object(s)

  Retrieved data

  📊 Preview: SFLIGHT (Table)

  Row 1:
  ──────────────────────────────
  MANDT: 100
  CARRID: AA
  CONNID: 17
  FLDATE: 2024-10-24
  PRICE: 422.94
  CURRENCY: USD
  PLANETYPE: 747-400
  SEATSMAX: 385
  SEATSOCC: 372
  PAYMENTSUM: 192556.43

  Row 2:
  ──────────────────────────────
  MANDT: 100
  CARRID: AA
  CONNID: 17
  FLDATE: 2024-11-25
  PRICE: 422.94
  CURRENCY: USD
  PLANETYPE: 747-400

Compact Mode

abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --compact

  Previewing 1 object(s)

  Retrieved data

  📊 Preview: SPFLI (Table)
  ┌───────┬────────┬────────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────────┬────────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┐
  │ MANDT │ CARRID │ CONNID │ COUNTRYFR │ CITYFROM │ AIRPFROM │ COUNTRYTO │ CITYTO     │ AIRPTO │ FLTIME │ DEPTIME  │ ARRTIME  │ DISTANCE │ DISTID │ FLTYPE │ PERIOD │
  ├───────┼────────┼────────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼───────────┼────────────┼────────┼────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┤
  │ 100   │ AA     │ 17     │ US        │ NEW YORK │ JFK      │ US        │ SAN FRA... │ SFO    │ 361    │ 11:00:00 │ 14:01:00 │ 2572     │ MI     │        │        │
  └───────┴────────┴────────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴───────────┴────────────┴────────┴────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┘

Multiple Objects

📊 Preview: 2 Objects

1️⃣  SFLIGHT (Table)
    ┌──────────┬────────┬───────────┐
    │ CARRID   │ CONNID │ FLDATE    │
    ├──────────┼────────┼───────────┤
    │ AA       │ 0017   │ 20240201  │
    └──────────┴────────┴───────────┘
    1 row

2️⃣  ZC_CUST (CDS View)
    ┌──────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
    │ KUNNR    │ NAME     │ CITY      │
    ├──────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
    │ 000001   │ Customer1│ New York  │
    └──────────┴──────────┴───────────┘
    1 row

JSON Output

{
  "SUCCESS": true,
  "COMMAND": "PREVIEW",
  "MESSAGE": "Retrieved 2 object(s)",
  "OBJECTS": [
    {
      "NAME": "SFLIGHT",
      "TYPE": "TABL",
      "TYPE_TEXT": "Table",
      "ROW_COUNT": 4,
      "ROWS": [
        {
          "CARRID": "AA",
          "CONNID": "0017",
          "FLDATE": "20240201",
          "PRICE": "422.94",
          "CURRENCY": "USD",
          "PLANETYPE": "747-400",
          "SEATSMAX": "400",
          "SEATSOCC": "350",
          "PAYMENTSUM": "145000"
        },
        {
          "CARRID": "AA",
          "CONNID": "0017",
          "FLDATE": "20240202",
          "PRICE": "422.94",
          "CURRENCY": "USD",
          "PLANETYPE": "747-400",
          "SEATSMAX": "400",
          "SEATSOCC": "380",
          "PAYMENTSUM": "155000"
        }
      ],
      "FIELDS": [
        { "FIELD": "CARRID", "TYPE": "CHAR", "LENGTH": 3 },
        { "FIELD": "CONNID", "TYPE": "NUMC", "LENGTH": 4 },
        { "FIELD": "FLDATE", "TYPE": "DATS", "LENGTH": 8 },
        { "FIELD": "PRICE", "TYPE": "CURR", "LENGTH": 16 },
        { "FIELD": "CURRENCY", "TYPE": "CUKY", "LENGTH": 5 },
        { "FIELD": "PLANETYPE", "TYPE": "CHAR", "LENGTH": 15 },
        { "FIELD": "SEATSMAX", "TYPE": "NUMC", "LENGTH": 4 },
        { "FIELD": "SEATSOCC", "TYPE": "NUMC", "LENGTH": 4 },
        { "FIELD": "PAYMENTSUM", "TYPE": "CURR", "LENGTH": 16 }
      ],
      "TOTAL_ROWS": 10,
      "COLUMNS_DISPLAYED": 6,
      "COLUMNS_HIDDEN": ["SEATSMAX", "SEATSOCC", "PAYMENTSUM"],
      "NOT_FOUND": false,
      "ACCESS_DENIED": false
    }
  ],
  "SUMMARY": {
    "TOTAL_OBJECTS": 1,
    "TOTAL_ROWS": 4
  },
  "PAGINATION": {
    "LIMIT": 10,
    "OFFSET": 0,
    "TOTAL": 354,
    "HAS_MORE": true,
    "NEXT_OFFSET": 10
  },
  "ERROR": ""
}

Response Structure

JSON Response Schema

{
  "SUCCESS": boolean,
  "COMMAND": "PREVIEW",
  "MESSAGE": "string",
  "OBJECTS": [
    {
      "NAME": "string",
      "TYPE": "TABL|DDLS",
      "TYPE_TEXT": "Table|CDS View",
      "ROW_COUNT": number,
      "TOTAL_ROWS": number,
      "ROWS": [
        { "FIELD_NAME": "value", ... }
      ],
      "FIELDS": [
        {
          "FIELD": "string",
          "TYPE": "string",
          "LENGTH": number
        }
      ],
      "COLUMNS_DISPLAYED": number,
      "COLUMNS_HIDDEN": ["string"],
      "NOT_FOUND": boolean,
      "ACCESS_DENIED": boolean
    }
  ],
  "SUMMARY": {
    "TOTAL_OBJECTS": number,
    "TOTAL_ROWS": number
  },
  "PAGINATION": {
    "LIMIT": number,
    "OFFSET": number,
    "TOTAL": number,
    "HAS_MORE": boolean,
    "NEXT_OFFSET": number
  },
  "ERROR": "string"
}

Error Handling

Error	Message
Table not found	`Table not found: Z_NONEXISTENT`
CDS View not found	`CDS View not found: Z_NONEXISTENT`
Access denied	`Access denied to table: SFLIGHT`
Invalid WHERE clause	`Invalid WHERE clause: <reason>`
Invalid object type	`Unsupported object type: CLAS`
Invalid column name	`Invalid column: INVALID_NAME`

Error Output

❌ Table not found: Z_NONEXISTENT

❌ Access denied to table: SFLIGHT

Object Type Detection

Auto-Detection Rules

Object Name Pattern	Default Type
`ZC_` or `zc_`	DDLS (CDS View)
`Z*`	TABL (Table) - fallback
Other	TABL (Table)

Supported Object Types

Type Code	Type Text	Description
`TABL`	Table	Database table
`DDLS`	CDS View	CDS View/Entity

Implementation

ABAP Tables/Classes Used

Table/Class	Purpose
TADIR	Object directory (verify object exists)
DD02L	Table/structure definitions
DD03L	Table/structure fields
DD02V	Table view with delivery class
CL_DD_DDL_HANDLER_FACTORY	Read CDS view data

Table Data Retrieval (TABL)

" Get table fields from DD03L
SELECT fieldname, datatype, leng
  FROM dd03l
  INTO TABLE lt_fields
  WHERE tabname = iv_name
    AND as4local = 'A'
  ORDER BY position.

" Build SELECT query
" Use OPEN SQL with limited fields
SELECT UP TO lv_limit (lt_fields)
  FROM (iv_name)
  INTO TABLE lt_result
  WHERE (lv_where_clause).

CDS View Data Retrieval (DDLS)

" Use CDS view directly with OPEN SQL
" First verify CDS view exists in TADIR
SELECT SINGLE obj_name FROM tadir
  INTO lv_obj_name
  WHERE obj_name = iv_name
    AND object = 'DDLS'.

" Read data from CDS view
SELECT UP TO lv_limit (lt_fields)
  FROM (iv_name)
  INTO TABLE lt_result
  WHERE (lv_where_clause).

Column Width Calculation

" Calculate column width based on:
" 1. Field length from DD03L
" 2. Max value length in result set
" 3. Field description length
" Minimum width: 3 characters
" Maximum width: 20 characters (truncate with ...)

Examples

# Preview a table with default settings
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT

# Preview with more rows
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --limit 50

# Preview with paging (offset)
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --offset 100 --limit 50

# Preview with filter
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --where "CARRID = 'AA' AND CONNID = '0017'"

# Preview specific columns
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --columns CARRID,CONNID,FLDATE,PRICE,CURRENCY

# Preview CDS view
abapgit-agent preview --objects ZC_MY_CDS_VIEW

# Vertical format for wide tables
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --vertical

# Compact mode
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --compact

# JSON for programmatic use
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT --json

# Preview multiple objects
abapgit-agent preview --objects SFLIGHT,ZSCUSTOMER,ZCF_MY_VIEW

Security Considerations

Read-only access: Preview only reads data, no modifications
WHERE clause validation: Sanitize input to prevent SQL injection
- Allow only: =, <>, >, <, >=, <=, LIKE, IN, AND, OR, (, )
- Block: DELETE, UPDATE, INSERT, DROP, TABLE
Column name validation: Validate column names against DD03L
Row limit: Enforce maximum of 500 rows to prevent large result sets