SAP How-to Guide

Business Analytics

How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

Applicable Releases:
SAP BW 7.0* and later releases

Version 1.0
April 2012

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Document History
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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

Table of Contents
1.

Business Scenario ........................................................................................................... 2

2.

Step by Step Solution ...................................................................................................... 3

3.

Conclusions / Recommendations ................................................................................... 5

4.

Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 6

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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

1.

Business Scenario

For complex data staging scenarios within SAP BW it is usually necessary to manipulate data, this
can be done at several points during loading:

Start routine
Expert routine
End routine

The following scenario is about manipulation and transformation of data during staging through the
data warehouse. Scenario:
(1) You need to do a lookup on custom Z-table and populate a field in this case ZCOUNTRY in
the data target (InfoCube) within transformation from DataStore Object to InfoCube.
In order to accomplish the above task it has been determined to use End Routine for the
Enhancement. As best practice it is well known and recommendable to use internal tables rather
than SELECT SINGLE statement in performance point of view. As mentioned on SAP NetWeaver
BW powered by SAP HANA this best practices remains valid, therefore the data selection via the
internal table will be showed.
For demonstration purposes data will be loaded from a DataStore Object to an InfoCube. In the
transformation for field 0SOLD_TO a lookup for country in the customer Z-Table will be done.

This transformation will be enhanced via end routines by performing the following actions:
(1) Get the country from Z-Table for each 0SOLD_TO and populate field ZCOUNTRY in the
Data Target (InfoCube)
A SAP BW system powered by HANA at current state doesnt change much on the ABAP
Application Layer, a lot of well-known performance optimizations in this area are remaining valid.
Therefore the present How to guide shows an efficient way to use SELECT statements in
transformation in SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA as well as with SAP BW on other
databases.

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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

2.

Step by Step Solution

(1) Create Transformation from DataStore Object to InfoCube.
(2) Create End Routine as follows.

Add Global Declaration. Refer to appendix for the ABAP Code.

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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

Remarks on the shown example:
-

If it is useful to read a table according to our example ZCUSTLOC in the end routine is
depending on the amount of records. Considering tables, in our example ZCUSTLOC, with a
lot of entries it is recommendable to read only the relevant Data Packages and to buffer this
table (usage of FOR ALL ENTRIES IN <result_package>). See also Note 1662726 Optimizing select with FOR ALL ENTRIES in SAP HANA database
In scenarios where a lookup of data of BW InfoObjects is executed it is recommendable to
use the standard rule type reading master data because this is already optimized for data
selects without the need to use ABAP coding. This is also possible for Navigation Attributes
and DataStore objects since BW 7.30 (see below).
The mentioned best practices are also valid for scenarios where 3.x data flow logic is used
as well as for new HANA optimized objects like shown.
New standard look-up features with SAP BW 7.30:
Beside the possibility to the do master data look up via a routine or rule (reading master
data) it is also possible switch on the navigation attribute in the source object to make this
attribute visible as a source field in the transformation. Hence it is available as field for
staging, which makes it not necessary to read to master data separately:

Afterwards the navigation attribute become available in the transformation and can be
used:

There is also a new look-up feature available for lock ups in DataStore Object.
These standard functionalities are fully optimized, easy to use and therefore highly
recommended to use.

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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

3.

Conclusions / Recommendations

There is significant improvement in End Routine Processing times when using Read Table rather
than Select Single with-in Loop Statement. Select Single should be avoided with in a loop whereever possible.
Valid for SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA:
(1) Due to the architecture of SAP HANA database recommendation and best practices of
good ABAP coding are valid and still important.
(2) During different loading cycles it has been observed that larger DTP - Data Package size of
100,000 - 150,000 records showed a significant performance gain than smaller
DataPackages.
(3) Secondary indexes on customer Z-Tables might not be required, as data is already stored
in column store with in HANA. DataStore Object Secondary indexes arent required on SAP
HANA anymore. However for some use cases secondary indexes can still be beneficial. This
is especially true for highly selective queries on non-primary key fields. These queries can
be significantly improved by indexes on single fields which are most selective. (Note
1740373 - DSO: Maintenance of database indexes in SAP HANA.)
All best practices of the following SAP Notes should be considered for SAP HANA as well:
- Note 1227667 - Guidelines for expert routine: Design rules
- Note 1258089 - Design rule: Adding records to the start routine
- Note 1223532 - Design rules: Adding records to end routine

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How to SELECT in SAP BW transformations

4.

Appendix

DATA: BEGIN OF I_S_CUSTOMER,

/BIC/S_CUSTOMER TYPE ZCUSTLOC-/BIC/S_CUSTOMER,
/BIC/S_COUNTRY TYPE ZCUSTLOC-/BIC/S_COUNTRY,
END OF I_S_CUSTOMER.
DATA: i_t_customer like HASHED table of I_S_CUSTOMER with uniq
ue key
/BIC/S_CUSTOMER.
select /BIC/S_CUSTOMER /BIC/S_COUNTRY from zcustloc
into corresponding fields of table i_t_customer.
if sy-subrc = 4.
RAISE EXCEPTION TYPE CX_RSROUT_ABORT.
endif.
sort i_t_customer by /BIC/S_CUSTOMER.
loop at RESULT_PACKAGE ASSIGNING <RESULT_FIELDS>.
read table i_t_customer into I_S_CUSTOMER with key
/BIC/S_CUSTOMER = <RESULT_FIELDS>-/BIC/S_SOLD_TO.
if sy-subrc eq 0.
<RESULT_FIELDS>-/BIC/S_COUNTRY = I_S_CUSTOMER/BIC/S_COUNTRY.
endif.
endloop.

March 2013

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