Grouping records by part of field in OpenSQL

Hi,

Is the subject possible at all in abap? For example in MS-SQL syntax I can use functions like:

select max(<i><field1></i>)

from <i><table></i>

group by <b>substring</b>(<i><field1></i>)

or

select max(<i><datefield1></i>)

from <i><table></i>

group by <b>year</b>(<i><datefield1></i>)

Is there a simple way to do this in abap or do I just need to create loop and group manually?

regards,

erki