Looking for Non-Printable characters inside internal table ABAP - abap

Question

I have an internal table this is written to file and then pulled into the BW as a datasource. Occasionally a non printable character makes it into the file output and breaks the import process into the BW. Below is a sample of my code. Since the itab is not type c or string I am unable to use the find/replace regex on it. Has anyone else had to solve this type of problem before?
FORM eliminate_non_print_char TABLES p_shiptab STRUCTURE shiptab.
LOOP AT p_shiptab INTO wa_shiptab.
FIND REGEX '[^[:print:]]+(?!$)'
IN wa_shiptab
IGNORING CASE.
"RESULTS result.
IF sy-subrc = 0.
REPLACE REGEX '[^[:print:]]+(?!$)'
IN wa_shiptab WITH ''
IGNORING CASE.
ENDIF.
ENDLOOP.
DATA: BEGIN OF shiptab OCCURS 2000.
INCLUDE STRUCTURE ship1.
INCLUDE STRUCTURE ship2.
DATA: landtx LIKE vbrk-landtx,
bl_konwa LIKE vbak-waerk.
INCLUDE STRUCTURE ship3.
INCLUDE STRUCTURE ship4.
DATA: frght_amnt_usd LIKE konv-kwert,
revenue_amnt_usd LIKE vbap-netwr,
unit_price_usd LIKE vbap-netpr,
pgi_posting_date LIKE mkpf-budat,
ord_line_item_qty LIKE lips-lfimg,
asm_no LIKE kna1-kunnr,
asm_username LIKE adrc-sort1,
va_augru_t LIKE tvaut-bezei,
ship_to_name LIKE adrc-name1,
bill_to_name LIKE adrc-name1,
forward_to_name LIKE adrc-name1,
fmv_amnt LIKE konv-kbetr,
va_butxt LIKE t001-butxt,
sold_to_search_term LIKE adrc-sort1,
bill_to_search_term LIKE adrc-sort1,
va_prctr LIKE vbap-prctr,
va_bezei LIKE tvrot-bezei.
INCLUDE STRUCTURE zorder_attr.
DATA: extended_bits_count(20),
va_bstkd_hdr LIKE char32.
DATA: gsm_bp_katr6 LIKE kna1-katr6,
gsm_bp_vtext6 LIKE tvk6t-vtext,
asm_ze_katr7 LIKE kna1-katr7,
asm_ze_vtext7 LIKE tvk7t-vtext,
gsm_ze_katr6 LIKE kna1-katr6,
gsm_ze_vtext6 LIKE tvk7t-vtext.
DATA: END OF shiptab
.
The error I get is: "WA_SHIPTAB" must be a character-type data object (data type C, N, D,T, or STRING). I have non character types in the itab shiptab. I know I can do this lookup on each field individually, but the itab has 235 fields and that does not seem efficient.

Answer 1

The program has another copy of the main itab that is char based fields, I looped through this and placed the following code:
REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '[^[:print:]]+$'
IN transtab WITH ''
IGNORING CASE.
Links for the answer:
SCN Link
Help.SAP Link

Answer 2

You could use Runtime Type Sevices to loop through the definition of each field in the table to determine which are type-compatable with the REGEX operation. You can then use dynamic assignment to process only those fields which are compatable, one at a time. For example:
" Initalize Range of typekinds that are compatable with REGEX. See constant
" attributes of CL_ABAP_DATADESCR for typekind definitions. You'll have to
" define these explicitly
lr_typekind_regex = <...>.
" Get components of table structure
lo_tabdescr = cl_abap_typedescr=>describe_by_data( p_shiptab ).
lo_strdescr = lo_tabdescr->get_table_ine_type( ).
li_comp = lo_structdescr->get_components( ).
" Loop through table, sanitizing regex-compatable fields in each row
LOOP AT p_shiptab ASSIGNING <la_shiptab>.
LOOP AT li_comp INTO la_comp.
CHECK la_comp-type->type_kind IN lr_typekind_regex.
" Call subroutine containing Regex to remove non-printable chars from field
ASSIGN COMPONENT la_comp-name OF STRUCTURE <la_shiptab> TO <l_charvalue>.
PERFORM sanitize_field CHANGING <l_charvalue>.
ENDLOOP.
ENDLOOP.