Selection screen processing

Selection screens are special screens that are defined with the help of ABAP statements. As programmers
do not have access to the flow logic of selection screens, they cannot define dialog modules for selection
screens. The ABAP runtime environment fully controls the processing flow of selection screens. To allow
programmers to modify the selection screen before it is called (PBO) and react to user actions on the
selection screen (PAI), the ABAP runtime environment generates a number of special selection screen
events before the selection screen is displayed and after the user has executed actions on the selection
screen. Programmers can define event blocks in the program to react to these events.
The basic form of the selection screen events is the AT SELECTION-SCREEN event. This event occurs
after the runtime environment has passed all input data from the selection screen to the ABAP program.
The other selection screen events allow programmers to modify the selection screen before it is sent and
specifically check user input.
Selection screen events occur both during standard and user-defined selection screen processing. The SYDYNNRsystem field contains the number of the active selection screen and helps you to determine which
selection screen is currently being processed in the event blocks.

Overview of Selection Screen Events

For example, a standard selection screen is defined as follows in the declaration part of an executable
program:

The following graphic shows the possible selection screen events and their chronological sequence
between theINITIALIZATION and the START-OF-SELECTION event. If user-defined selection screens
are called, the event sequence is imbedded accordingly in the current program flow.

Selection screen processing starts after the INITIALIZATION event with AT SELECTION SCREEN
OUTPUT. The selection screen is then sent to the screen. User actions on the selection screen result in
other events that are either used for field or possible entries help, or that trigger PAI processing of the

selection screen. During PAI processing,error messages in the relevant event blocks allow users to return
to the selection screen. Only if the AT SELECTION-SCREEN event is exited properly, that is not
through an error message, are the other events of the executable program triggered, starting with STARTOF-SELECTION.
Choosing multiple selection calls the relevant dialog box. Similarly, events are triggered during its PAI
processing.
Basic Form
PBO of the Selection Screen
Processing Single Fields
Processing Blocks
Processing Radio Buttons
Processing Multiple Selections
Defining Field Help
Defining Input Help