What are events in ABAP reporting (e.g., START-OF-SELECTION)?

Classical ABAP report programs execute as a sequence of predefined event blocks — special statements marking points in the program's lifecycle where the ABAP runtime automatically calls the code that follows, rather than the program running top-to-bottom as one continuous block.

REPORT z_demo.

INITIALIZATION.
  " runs once, before the selection screen is displayed

START-OF-SELECTION.
  " runs after the user submits the selection screen - main processing goes here

END-OF-SELECTION.
  " runs after START-OF-SELECTION completes - often used for final output

The most commonly used event is START-OF-SELECTION, which is where the bulk of a report's actual data-processing logic typically lives; other events like INITIALIZATION and AT SELECTION-SCREEN let you hook into specific moments in the selection screen's own lifecycle, such as setting default values or validating user input before processing begins.

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