DELETE is the statement to delete one or more lines from an ABAP Internal Table. Use the INDEX addition to delete a single line. If we use the INDEX addition and the operation is successful, SY-SUBRC will be set to zero, the  line with the corresponding index in the internal table will be deleted and the indexes of the subsequent lines will be reduced by one.

DELETE <internal table> [INDEX <index>].

We can also use the above DELETE statement without INDEX addition inside LOOP. Inside LOOP if we do not specify the INDEX, then the current loop line will be deleted.

We can use the WHERE clause to delete single or multiple lines. All the lines that meet the logical condition will be deleted. If at least one line is deleted, the system sets SY-SUBRC to 0, otherwise to 4.

DELETE <internal table> [FROM <n1>] [TO <n2>] [WHERE <condition>].

With WHERE clause we can also specify the lines between certain indices that we want to delete by specifying indexes in FROM and TO additions.

*--------------------------------------------------------------*
*Data Types
*--------------------------------------------------------------*
TYPES: BEGIN OF ty_student,
       id(5)     TYPE n,
       name(10)  TYPE c,
       place(10) TYPE c,
       age       TYPE i,
       END OF ty_student.

*--------------------------------------------------------------*
*Data Declaration
*--------------------------------------------------------------*
DATA: gwa_student TYPE ty_student.
DATA: it  TYPE TABLE OF ty_student.

gwa_student-id     = 1.
gwa_student-name   = 'JOHN'.
gwa_student-place  = 'London'.
gwa_student-age    = 20.
INSERT gwa_student INTO TABLE it.

gwa_student-id     = 2.
gwa_student-name   = 'JIM'.
gwa_student-place  = 'New York'.
gwa_student-age    = 21.
INSERT gwa_student INTO TABLE it.

gwa_student-id     = 3.
gwa_student-name   = 'JACK'.
gwa_student-place  = 'Bangalore'.
gwa_student-age    = 20.
INSERT gwa_student INTO TABLE it.

gwa_student-id     = 4.
gwa_student-name   = 'ROB'.
gwa_student-place  = 'Bangalore'.
gwa_student-age    = 22.
INSERT gwa_student INTO TABLE it.

WRITE:/ 'Values in IT before DELETE' COLOR 4.

WRITE:/ 'ID' COLOR 5,7 'Name' COLOR 5, 18 'Place' COLOR 5,
        37 'Age' COLOR 5.
LOOP AT it INTO gwa_student.
  WRITE:/ gwa_student-id, gwa_student-name, gwa_student-place,
          gwa_student-age.
ENDLOOP.

SKIP.
WRITE:/ 'Values in IT after DELETE' COLOR 4.

*Delete second line from IT
DELETE it INDEX 2.

WRITE:/ 'ID' COLOR 5,7 'Name' COLOR 5, 18 'Place' COLOR 5,
        37 'Age' COLOR 5.
LOOP AT it INTO gwa_student.
  WRITE:/ gwa_student-id, gwa_student-name, gwa_student-place,
          gwa_student-age.
ENDLOOP.

SKIP.
WRITE:/ 'Values in IT after DELETE using WHERE Clause' COLOR 4.

*Delete entries from IT where place is Bangalore
DELETE it WHERE place = 'Bangalore'.

WRITE:/ 'ID' COLOR 5,7 'Name' COLOR 5, 18 'Place' COLOR 5,
        37 'Age' COLOR 5.
LOOP AT it INTO gwa_student.
  WRITE:/ gwa_student-id, gwa_student-name, gwa_student-place,
          gwa_student-age.
ENDLOOP.



Serkan AKKAVAK
Computer Engineer
ABAP Developer & SAP S/4 HANA Logistics Consultant
Contact : serkurumsal@yandex.com