Avoid Wrong Wildcards in LIKE, CP, and NP

WarningAnti-Patterns & Bad Practices#EC NO_WRONG_WILDCARDRemote Enabled

Overview

Avoid wrong wildcards in LIKE, CP, and NP.

ATC Finding Messages:

• Use % or _ as wildcards in LIKE comparisons instead of *
• Use * or + as wildcards in CP and NP comparisons instead of %

Rationale

ABAP SQL LIKE statements use '%' (matching any sequence of characters) and '_' (matching a single character) as wildcards. In contrast, ABAP logical comparison operators CP and NP use '' and '+' as wildcards. Using '' in LIKE or '%' in CP/NP indicates confusion between SQL pattern matching and ABAP string matching.

Non-Compliant

SELECT SINGLE carrid FROM scarr WHERE carrid LIKE '*LH*' INTO @lv_text.
IF lv_text CP 'prefix%'.
  RETURN.
ENDIF.

Compliant

SELECT SINGLE carrid FROM scarr WHERE carrid LIKE '%LH%' INTO @lv_text.
IF lv_text CP 'prefix*'.
  RETURN.
ENDIF.

Configuration & Thresholds

This check can be fine-tuned directly in the ATC Check Variant Editor (CHKV) in Eclipse ADT:

Parameter Name	Data Type	Default Value	Description & Guidance
CHECK_LIKE	Boolean	true	Enable checking for invalid wildcard usage in LIKE comparisons (defaults to true)
CHECK_CP	Boolean	true	Enable checking for invalid wildcard usage in CP and NP comparisons (defaults to true)

Suppression

To suppress findings for this rule, append the pseudo-comment to the statement:

" Standard pseudo-comment:
... "#EC NO_WRONG_WILDCARD

" SAP CI_ prefix format:
... "#EC CI_NO_WRONG_WILDCARD

Related Rules

• Prefer BETWEEN for Inclusive Range Checks — #EC PREF_BETWEEN
• Avoid Repeating the Same String Literal — #EC NO_DUP_LITERALS

Technical Details

• Native ATC Class: ZCL_SKYLINT_NO_WRONG_WILDCARD
• Implementation File: zcl_skylint_no_wrong_wildcard.clas.abap