Advanced Business Application Programming, or ABAP, is a programming language used for developing applications for the SAP R/3, a widely-used business application subsystem.
It is currently positioned alongside Java as the main language for SAP application server programming. The latest version is known as ABAP Objects and is object-orientated programming (OOP).
SAP’s original model for R/3 was developed before the idea of an object-orientated model was common, but the transition was made due to an increase in customer demand. SAP will run applications that have been written using the earlier ABAP version, ABAP/4, as well as applications using ABAP Objects. Business Analysts will utilise SAP ABAP in their work.