RAISE SHORTDUMP — ending the program on purpose, with a dump

Level: 301 · deep dive

Status: stub — the shape is here; the worked program is not yet.

One line: Since 7.53, RAISE SHORTDUMP TYPE zcx_fatal … ends the program immediately with a runtime error that carries an exception object — the deliberate version of a short dump, for situations where continuing would corrupt data and no caller could sensibly recover.

What it does

IF lv_balance_check <> 0.
  RAISE SHORTDUMP TYPE zcx_inconsistent_state
    EXPORTING iv_document = lv_belnr.
ENDIF.

The exception class must inherit from CX_NO_CHECK. Unlike RAISE EXCEPTION, nothing can catch this; unlike ASSERT, it carries typed attributes into the dump analysis (ST22), which is the point: the person reading the dump at 6 a.m. gets the document number, not ASSERTION_FAILED.

Where it sits

Mechanism	Catchable	Carries data	Use for
RAISE EXCEPTION	yes	yes	failures a caller can handle
ASSERT	no	no	invariants; a bug
RAISE SHORTDUMP	no	yes	an inconsistency that must stop everything and be diagnosable
MESSAGE … TYPE 'X'	no	message only	the pre-7.53 spelling of the same idea

What this page still needs

• [ ] a snippets/ program, once a local CX_NO_CHECK subclass can be expressed here (abaplint cannot resolve the superclass)
• [ ] the ST22 dump it produces, recorded, showing the attributes in the analysis
• [ ] the release note confirming 7.53

See also

• ASSERT — the blunter relative
• TRY, CATCH, RAISE — the catchable mechanism
• MESSAGE — type X
• Short dumps — reading what it produces