SAP BW Mentor

Overview

Are you maintaining too much queries? Do you have many repetitive tasks? Maybe your queries are not flexible enough. In this post, I want to give you a checklist. This checklist shows you the places where you can check the source of your problem.

The main cause of rigidity

Inflexible queries use constant values in several places. This is their common characteristic. To improve your queries, you need to hunt after all of the constants as a first step. So where can you start?

Checkpoint 1: Restrictions

The most common place for the constants is the characteristic restrictions. In my example, I filtered the calendar year with the value 2015. Then the month from January to November.

Don't forget the restricted key figures. They also use restrictions. Here I have selected November in my key figures.

The fixed values 2015, January and November increases the maintenance. What if somebody wants to run the same query for another time period?

Checkpoint 2: Descriptions

The second place is the description. Did you write constants for the months in the column descriptions? Like me in this example.

If yes, you need to maintain the same piece of information in 2 places. Not only in the restrictions but also in the descriptions. It's getting worse, if we forget to change the descriptions after a change in the filter.

Checkpoint 3: Exceptions

Do you have an exception? My exception colors a column. It’s called Books below the plan. The column will be red, if it drops below zero. And here is another constant. The value zero.

What if one of the managers wants to evaluate this column based on another benchmark? Than you need to change the query.

Checkpoint 4: Conditions

In my example, I have also created a condition. This condition filters the rows with the same logic. And the zero appears again.

What if you want to align this condition with the exception? Then you need to change the zero on 2 places. What if you forget it?

The Problem with Inflexible Queries

I saw a common "solution" for such a problem. Create as many copy of your query as you need. You can create several query variants. With different selections, descriptions and condition parameters. But this is a wrong way.

Having many replicas of the same thing cause serious problems.

This will cost you a significant time. The time spent also on small changes increases rapidly. And you will have less time for building new functionality.

The Solution: Use Variables

So what is the solution? Just eliminate the cause of this problem. The cause is the multiple versions of the same query. So try to keep only a single query version. Analyze the reason before you want to copy a query. Do you want to copy a query just because you want to change a constant? Replace this constant. Replace it with a variable. All in all, you can keep the number of the queries low with the variables. And the time spent on their change. That’s why we work with variables.

Conclusion

Do you have enough variables in your queries? This is the first question, you need to answer. Check the structure of your queries. Go to the places that I have showed you in this post and collect the fixed values. You just need to replace them with a variable.

What's next?

Ok. I gave you a solution. Replace the constants with query variables.

But it's time to clarify several questions:
What is a variable? And what are the main usage scenarios for query variables?

You can find the answer in my next post in this topic about Variables: The flexible placeholders in your SAP BW queries. Happy reading!

Do you want to practice?

I plan to launch soon a new SAP BW training in email, "Practice the SAP BW query variables". With this SAP BW training, I want to help you in getting practical experience with the variables.

What will you get during the SAP BW training?

I want to show you the basic techniques how to create the most important query variables.

You will get...