Search for a (sub)workarea in an internal table

Question

Hi all gurus,
quite a simple question: I have an internal table made up of 100+ fields, and a workarea of the same type which is filled with some data.
I'd like to know what's the best, effective way to search if there's a line in the internal table which is equal to the above cited workarea.
I could compare specific fields:
READ TABLE itab WITH KEY f1 = workarea-f1 f2 = workare-f2 ....
IF sy-subrc = 0.
  OK.
ELSE.
  KO
ENDIF
and so on. But it's quite terrible to write such a statement when there are a lot of fields!
A refinement of the above request; I'd like to perform the above explained search EXCLUDING some specific fields from the comparizon, e.g. ,comparing fields from f3 to f98, ignoring f1, f2 and f99....
Is there a simple way to obtain the desiderata? Please provide example as in documentation I've read about a COMPARING ALL FIELDS clause, but didn't understand how to use it w.r.t. the READ TABLE statement.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi,
In my opinion, practically I don't see such a table that needs to combine hundreds of fields to be key fields.
However, to meet your requirement, I guess there are several ways. But I just can think of one way that sounds a little bit workaround.
Here is the pseudo code:
data: itab_1 with fields from f1 to f99,
         itab_2 with fields from f3 to f98,
        wa_1 like line of itab_1,
        wa_2 like line of itab_2.   
*there some time you fill data for your itab_1
now assume itab_1 has been filled with data.
now fill content for itab_2, which contain fields from f3 to f98 of itab_1
loop at itab_1 into wa_1.
  move-corresponding fields of wa_1 to wa_2.
append wa_2 to itab_2.
endloop.
clear wa_2.
clear work area 2.
suppose you have the work area you want to compare its content with the itab
copy it to wa_2
now wa_2 has value.
*now use Read command to compare the needed data
Read table itab_2 into wa_2 comparing all fields.
if sy-subrc = 0.
  ok
else.
not ok.
endif.
The option Comparing all fields in Read command will compare content of all fields of the work are with all fields in itab.
This is the output that you need.
Regards,
paul
Edited by: paul the octopus on Dec 15, 2011 6:18 PM