Symbol # in variable cannot be handled

Question

I got a CSV file from my front-end as a XString and after I convert it into String it looks as follows:

In the next step I'm trying to perform SPLIT lv_string AT '##' INTO TABLE itab so I can get my data but it doesn't split anything, itab contains one line equal to lv_string.

If I try REPLACE '#' IN lv_string WITH space, lv_string doesn't change and sy-subrc is 4.

From my point of view I have this problem because the symbol # is used by SAP in this context as a symbol for non-printable symbols (that result from the conversion byte->string).

My question is: how may I use SPLIT/REPLACE with # in this case?

I also thought that I can change the SAP code page when converting XString to String but I already use the SAP code page 4110 (utf-8) and don't know a better alternative...

Answer 1

When you display a variable with the debugger, it displays the generic character # (U+0023) for all control characters which are not assigned a glyph ("non-printable symbols" as you say).

If the variable corresponds to the contents of a text file, and ## frequently occurs, there is a big chance that it's the combination of the control characters U+000D and U+000A which correspond to "newline" in Windows files.

In the backend debugger, you can check the hexadecimal values of those characters by clicking the button "Hexadezimal" (shown in your screenshot).

You may use the variable CL_ABAP_CHAR_UTILITIES=>CR_LF which contains those two control characters.