Date without single quotes in SQL Where clause turns to 00000000. Why?

Question

The below program works in 4.6c but does not in ECC 6.0, the issue is the date actually turns to 00000000, debug shows the internal table as having the correct value that was inserted but st05 trace shows that the variable is holding the value 00000000, this works fine when the date is put inside single quotes but the actual program where I have this issue does not warrant adding single quotes. Has someone come across this situation. Any help is appreciated!
data v_vbeln like vbak-vbeln.
data: begin of where_tab occurs 0,
      s_date(20) type c,
      end of where_tab.
where_tab-s_date = 'audat = 19971106'.
append where_tab.
select vbeln into v_vbeln from vbak where (where_tab).
  write:/ v_vbeln.
endselect.

Answer 1

HI,
data v_vbeln like vbak-vbeln.
******data: begin of where_tab occurs 0,
******s_date(20) type c,
******end of where_tab.
******where_tab-s_date = 'audat = 19971106'.
******append where_tab.
***** The above statements are not needed for the select query.
******select vbeln into v_vbeln from vbak where (where_tab).
Your select query can be re-written as
select vbeln into v_vbeln from vbak where audat eq '19971106'.
write:/ v_vbeln.
endselect.
and if your requirement is to check for multiple dates then,
append them to a select-options and rewrite the select query as
select vbeln into v_vbeln from vbak where audat IN S_DATE. " S_DATE is your select-options
Regards
Sharath