Logical Databases

Logical databases are special programs that retrieve data and make it available to application programs. The most common use of logical databases is still to read data from database tables and associate them with executable programs while defining the program contents.

Logical databases contain Open SQL statements that read data from the database. he logical database reads the data, stores it in the program if necessary, and then passes it line by line to the application program or the function module using an interface work area.

Data Views in Logical Databases

Logical databases provide a particular view of database tables. It is appropriate to use logical databases if the database tables you want to read correspond largely to the structure of the logical database and where the flow of the system program (select > read > process > display) meets the requirements of the application.

The data structure in a logical database is hierarchical. Many tables in the SAPsystem are linked to each other using foreign key relationships. A logical database can pass the rows of these tables one after the other into an executable program in an order which is normally defined by the hierarchical structure.