- ALV is Application List viewer. SAP provides a set of ALV (ABAP LIST VIEWER) function modules which can be put into use to embellish the output of a report. This set of ALV functions is used to enhance the readability and functionality of any report output. Cases arise in sap when the output of a report contains columns extending more than 255 characters in length. In such cases, this set of ALV functions can help choose selected columns and arrange the different columns from a report output and also save different variants for report display. This is a very efficient tool for dynamically sorting and arranging the columns from a report output. The report output can contain up to 90 columns in the display with the wide array of display options.