How to find existing Item Codes in SAP

This is an SOP on how to find a summary of existing item codes in SAP's using different filters.

The screen name that you need is called "List of Items". There is no direct link to this screen in SAP but this screen can be accessed through any screen where you have to enter an item code to process a transaction: Purchase Orders, Item Master Data, Goods Returns etc.

If accessing this screen through Item Master Data, make sure you are in "Find" mode (ie go to screen and if not in Find Mode, hit "Ctr F"), then enter a star * in the Item No. cell and hit Enter

This will open the "List of Items" screen.

Once you are in this screen, you can search using different options.

For example, if you want to search for an item by Item Description but you don't know the exact description, double click on the Item Description Header so that the arrow shows in the that header column (that means the search will be conducted in that column).

In the "Find" cell at the top, we use a * as a wildcard key to do our search - this works on the same principle as excel)

The principles of a wildcard key works as follows: If you put a * in front of a word, ie *usb , it will search for that word showing at the End of a description. We will use USB as an example:

If you do you search with the * at the end of the word you are searching, ie usb*, it will do a search for item descriptions that Start with that word:

If you do the search with a star at the start and end of the word, ie *usb*, it will display all item descriptions with that word and/or characters in it

Once you have found the correct item code, click on it and select enter.

Alternatively, you can search for an item by changing your search to the Mfr Catalogue No. This would happen if you have the supplier code but don't know if the item code already exists on SAP. Double click on Mfr Catalogue No. column so that the arrow shows in that header:

In the Find Cell at the top, type in the full code or part of the code. In the following example, we will use code
RVE 4906. Be very cautious when you do this search because the format you enter it in, might not be the same than what it was entered as in SAP. For example, if I type in *RVE4906* in the Find cell (which is not exactly the same format that the code was entered as in SAP since there is no space between the RVE and 4906, then I am not getting any result and in this case, the result should have been at the top.

However, if I only type in *4906 (see wildcard principles explained above), then I am getting the result that I was looking for.

Alternatively, you can also do a search by Supplier. Double click on the "Preferred Supplier" column header so that the arrow appears there.

In the "Find" cell at the top, type in the supplier name. This will group a list of all the items listed against this supplier at the top of the screen:

You can also export this List Of Items report to an Excel sheet and run multiple filters if needed.

As mentioned above, there are various ways of accessing this List of Items report.

For example, in the case of raising a Purchase Order, simply click in an empty cell in the "Item No." column, hit the Tab button and this same "List of Items" report will appear and you can conduct the same searches as explained above.