Tricky dynamic date variant in ABAP query

Question

Hello All,
In an abap query there is a date field in the selection screen with from & to values.
I am trying to create a dynamic variant that will fill the following data into those fields:
From date: will be left blank
To date: will show today's date - 90 days
For example, if today's date is 01/12/2006 the variant should fill the following data into the fields:
From date: <blank>
To date: 01/09/2006
I have tried all the methods I know with dynamic dates calculation in the variant definition but did not manage to create such variant.
Any help will be very appreciated and points would be rewarded generously !
Thank you very much,
Ronen

Answer 1

If the "from" date is meant to be left blank (beginning of time) and the "to" date is some date plus or minus number of days from today, you use the "current +/- days" dynamic date calculation format as was mentioned earlier.  Likewise if the "from" date is some date plus or minus today's date, and the "to" date is infinity -- you only need the one Dynamic Date calculation.
To do this, first don't think about this as a date range, think of your Dynamic Date calculation as if this were a single parameter and not a select-option.  You are really saying "my date is anything LT/LE this date" or "my date is anything GT/GE this date" -- not a range
In the Save Variant screen, find the desired date select-option and:
1. Choose in column "Selection Variable", a "D" (Dynamic date calculation)
2. Use F4 in the "Name of Variable" column
3. Find "Current date +/- ??? days" or "Current date +/- ??? work days" in the popup, as appropriate
4. For "I/E" (include/exclude) column select as appropriate
5. For "Option" column, choose "LE", "LT", "GE", "GT", "NE" as appropriate
6. After clicking green check mark, enter your plus or minus days (and factory calendar if using work days).
7. Finish saving your variant.
8. You may not see your changes in your variant until you back all the way out of the variant and then redisplay it.  You'll see a greyed out date along with the symbol matching your choice (LT, LE, etc.)
Unfortunately if you don't have infinity on either end of the date you are limited to 999 days differences as far as I am aware.  If that is the case you can populate TVARVC table with parameter or selection variables, maintain them with STVARV transaction by hand, or use an ABAP program in batch to regularly calculate the values.  Then you can reference the TVARVC values in your variant instead of the Dynamic Date calculation.
If someone knows a way to bypass the use of TVARVC for date ranges that are more than 999 days apart please let me know.  TVARVC works well but it is extra effort whereas Dynamic Date calculation would be much easier to maintain if the date range could be made larger than 999 days.