BAPI_BUPA_SEARCH && mc_name1

Question

We use the function BAPI_BUPA_SEARCH to search for BP's.  This function has as input parameter: CENTRALDATA with the following fields:
PARTNER - BU_PARTNER - CHAR     10
MC_NAME1 - BU_MCNAME1 - CHAR 35      - Search Help Field 1 (Name 1/Last Name)
MC_NAME2 - BU_MCNAME2 - CHAR 35      - Search Help Field 2 (Name 2/First Name)
SEARCHTERM1 - BU_SORT1 - CHAR 20
SEARCHTERM2 - BU_SORT2 - CHAR 20
PARTNERCATEGORY - BU_TYPE - CHAR 1
The problem is that MC_NAME1 has only 35 charaters. 
In BUT000 the fields NAME_ORGx, NAME_FIRST and NAME_LAST all have 40 characters.
When we now search a BP with a name of 40 characters the function does not find this BP.
f.e.
BP 1: NAME_ORG1 = "test name" ---> MC_NAME1 = "TEST NAME"
BP 2: NAME_ORG1 = "test test name" ---> MC_NAME1 = "TEST TEST NAME"
BP 3: NAME_ORG1 = "test test test test test test test  name" ---> MC_NAME1 = "TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST "
The function BAPI_BUPA_SEARCH with parameter CENTRALDATA-MC_NAME1 = "name" will only find BP 1 and BP 2, BP 3 has no "name" in his MC_NAME1 anymore because of the lenght of this field.
How can this issue be solved?
Or do we need to use another function?
Kind regards,
Lieselot

Answer 1

Hi Lieselot,
I'm responding to your initial query...
Your observations and analysis about the issue is quite correct - the name fields can store 40 characters, but the search takes only 35 characters into account. This is a technical limitation of the business partner search, and is a known issue in SAP.
The limitation to repair it is that the name search fields are also used in the address components, so there are a lot of dependencies. Also, it is quite rare to see names more than 35 characters in length.
Having said this, i recognize that this is a genuine requirement for you - and many customers have faced similar issues. The approach they follow when they are sure to have many many BP's with name >35 characters is this :
Create a new field using EEW, and add this field to BUT000. This field can be of length 40 characters, and can be used to store the entire converted name. The search methods can now be modified to search by this Z field as well, so the search will always find even the long names.
The solution is tedious to implement but if almost every other BP in your systems has a long name, its worth the effort in the long run.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Rishu.