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DDIC and CDS

Read deep DDIC metadata, navigate CDS intelligence, and preview data, all read-only.

DDIC deep metadata​

Each ddic command fetches the parsed metadata for one object type:

abapctl ddic table SFLIGHT              # table definition with parsed DDL fields
abapctl ddic structure ZS_FOO           # structure metadata and source
abapctl ddic view ZV_FOO                # DDIC view metadata
abapctl ddic table-settings SFLIGHT     # technical settings
abapctl ddic data-element ZDE_STATUS    # data element metadata
abapctl ddic domain ZDO_STATUS          # domain metadata
abapctl ddic table-type ZTT_FOO         # table type metadata
abapctl ddic lock-object EZFOO           # lock object metadata
abapctl ddic type-group ZTG_FOO         # type group metadata and source

ddic table parses the DDL into structured fields (key flag, name, type, not-null). Each command runs a discovery check, so on a backend that lacks an endpoint you get a clear capability message rather than a raw error. See Capabilities. Several of these (tables, data elements, domains, structures) require a NetWeaver 7.51+ / S/4HANA backend.

CDS intelligence​

abapctl cds annotations                       # download the CDS annotation definitions (DSL text)
abapctl cds element-info I_Currency            # recursive DDIC element-info tree for an entity
abapctl cds repository-access I_Currency       # resolve an entity to its DDL source reference
abapctl cds test-dependencies I_Currency       # CDS test double dependency tree

cds annotations downloads the full annotation-definition DSL (a large CDATA block), useful as ground truth for what annotations exist. cds element-info returns a recursive field tree with properties (key flag, data element, data type, length) and annotations. cds repository-access maps a CDS entity name to its underlying DDL source object. cds test-dependencies lists the dependencies needed for CDS test doubles.

Data preview (design-time)​

The data commands preview rows the way the ADT data-preview tool does, the design-time view, distinct from runtime OData consumption.

abapctl data query SFLIGHT --rows 5                      # preview a DDIC table or view
abapctl data cds I_Currency --rows 3                     # preview a CDS view
abapctl data sql 'SELECT carrid, connid FROM sflight'    # freestyle ABAP SQL

data query takes an optional WHERE clause; all three return column-oriented results. The data-preview endpoints require a NetWeaver 7.51+ / S/4HANA backend.

See also​