Info Objects

Table of Contents

1. Info Objects.

2. Info Object Types.

3. Attributes and it’s Types

3.1 Navigational Attributes in B4.

4. Characteristic Info Object Modelling.

4.1 Enhance Master Data Update

4.2 High Cardinality

4.3 External SAP Hana View.

5. Key figure Info Object Modelling.

1. Info Objects.
Definition & Introduction:

 Business Evaluation Objects are known in BW as Info Objects.

 The basic and smallest building blocks used in building other objects is called Info Objects

 It is similar to field in other applications.

 In Other terms this is the basic information provided in SAP

 We use these Info Objects to design, build or configure other SAP BW Objects such as Info Providers, Data
Store Object (Advanced), Composite Providers, Queries and so on.

 Once info object is created it can be re-used in many data structures but cannot be used twice in same data
structure (Data Target/Info Provider).

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1. Info Objects

Creation of Info Object in Traditional BW

Creation of Info Object in BW/4HANA

1. Info Objects.

Traditional System BW/4HANA

2. Info Objects Types.

Types of Info Objects (with ex): Characteristics (for example, Customer)

Key figures (for example, Amount)

Units (for example, currency, amount unit)

Types of
Info Objects
Time characteristics (for example, fiscal
year)

Technical characteristics (for example,

request number)

XXL (CLOB, BLOB for example, PNG, IMG,

MPG, DOCS, PDF e.t.c.)
2. Info Objects Types

1. Characteristics:
Characteristics in SAP BW/4HANA can be defined based on five ABAP dictionary data types:

1. Character string (CHAR) – Alpha Numeric characters

2. Numerical text (NUMC) - Only Numbers
3. Signed numerical characteristics (SNUMC) - signed numbers, accept negative values
4. Date in format YYYYMMDD (DATS) - Date
5. Time in format HHMMSS (TIMS) - Time

Examples of characteristics Info Objects:

 Cost center (0COSTCENTER) 
 Material(0MATERIAL)
2. Info Objects Types

2. Key Figures:
Key figures provide the values to be evaluated. They are numeric information that is reported in the query.

Here we have 8 types of Data Types   

1. CURR
2. FLTP
3. DEC
4. DATS
5. INT4
6. INT8
7. TIMS
8. QUAN   

Examples of key figure Info Objects:

 Quantity (0QUANTITY)
 Amount (0AMOUNT)
2. Info Objects Types
3. Units:
Units are paired with Key figure values . They provide assign a unit of measurement to a Key
Figure Value. For instance 10 Kg where 10 is the Key Figure and Kg is the unit
Examples of Unit Characteristics:
 Currency unit (0CURRENCY) (Holds the currency type of the transaction e.g. $, EUR,
USD...)
 Value unit (0UNIT)  (or) unit of measure (Hold the unit of measure e.g. Gallon, Inch, cm,
PC)

Here we have 2 types of Data Types

1. CUKY
2. UNIT
2. Info Objects Types
4. Time Characteristic:
Time characteristics give time reference to data.

Examples of Time Characteristics:

 Calendar day (0CALDAY)
 Calendar year (0CALYEAR)
 Fiscal year (0FISCYEAR)

5. Technical Characteristics:
Technical characteristics are SAP standard objects having their own administrative
purposes.

Examples of Technical Characteristics:

 Info Object 0REQUID – While loading data to various data targets,  SAP allocates unique
numbers which are stored in this Info object
2. Info Objects Types
6. XXL.
XXL Info Objects are available in SAP BW/4HANA to assist in storing large contents in
different formats in the SAP HANA database. Subsequent modeling activities can then associate the contents stored as
XXL Info Objects with other characteristics.

Here we have 2 types of XXL info Objects

1. CLOB,
2. BLOB.

Character String (CLOB): Used to store a large amount of

character data, up to 1,333 characters.

Byte String (BLOB): Used to store a large amount of binary

data; further specification using MIME Type is necessary to
specify file format and content.

MIME types available in SAP BW/4HANA include image types

(PNG, IMG, BITF, PFX, etc.), video types (MPG, AVI, QT, VDO,
etc.), Microsoft types (DOC, PPT, XLS, RTF, etc.), Adobe PDF,
AutoCAD (DWG), and many others.
3. Attribute and it’s Types?

Attribute provides the additional descriptive information of entities. Which describes the
properties of characteristics of Info Object.

1. Display Attribute
2. Navigational Attribute.
3. Time Dependent Attribute.
4. Time Dependent Navigational Attribute.
5. Compounding Attribute
6. Transitive Attribute.

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3. Attribute and it’s Types?
1. Display Attribute:
Any info Object if Attribute Only Check box selected it becomes Display Attribute. If you define attributes
as display attributes, you can use these attributes only as additional information in reporting when
combined with the characteristic.

2. Navigation Attribute:
Whenever the attribute wants to act as characteristic at query level, we use navigational attribute. If you
define attributes as navigation attributes, you can use them to navigate in reporting. When a query is
executed, the system does not distinguish between navigation attributes and characteristics for an Info
Provider.

Display and navigation attributes can be marked as time-dependent if a validity period is required for each
attribute value.

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Custom Master Data Tables

• /BIC/M- View of Master data Tables

• /BIC/T-- Text Table
• /BIC/H-- Hierarchy Table
• /BIC/S- SID Table
• /BIC/P-- Master data Table, Time Independent attributes
• /BIC/Q-- Master data Table, Time Dependent attributes
• /BIC/X-- Nav, Time Dependent
• /BIC/Y– Nav, Time Independent

If standard info objects(BI Content) will start with /BI0/M.

3. Attribute and it’s Types?
Compounding Attribute:
Superior level of Attribute
When the value of one info object depends on the value of another info object.

Ex: I have 2 plants. Plant 1: M1, M2, M3.

Plant 2: M1, M2, M3.
Here Material is Compound of Plant
Compounding Attribute will act as part of Key to all Your Attribute, Text & SID table.
Ex: 0MAT_PLANT, 0REASON_CDE_0COMP_CODE.
Compounding Attribute will degrade loading performance.

Transitive Attribute:
Second level of Navigational Attribute. If one navigational attribute will have another navigational attribute. An
Attribute of an attribute is called transitive attribute

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3.1 Navigational attributes
1. How to activate Navigational Attribute for ADSO?

 It's not possible to declare Navigational Attribute in ADSO Level in BW4HANA

 ADSO is mainly positioned for persistency not for reporting related features. That part has been delegated to CP.

 In CP there are 2 places where Navigational Attributes can be activated.

1. CP - Output
2. CP - Source

2. How to access navigational attribute for transformation

ADSO Property.

If you have navigational attributes defined for an Info Object then you need to first make sure that info object is part
of ADSO

Then in the ADSO Modelling for that info object, you can choose 'use navigational attributes in extraction'
Once activated, you can access the navigational attributes in transformations where this ADSO is the source.

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Attribute Data.

Customer Master Data.

Customer OBJVERS Address Number Country Fax Number

100321 A 614325 CA 8198373140

100322 A 614326 DE  4853412898

100323 A 614327 US 2813836139

Material Master Data.

Material OBJVERS Base UOM Material Group Size

10829 A KG E_ULT_PW 102X122X94 CM/6 PIECES

10916 A PC E_ULT_PW 114X114X135 CM/32 PIECES

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Text Data.

Customer Text Data: Texts – You can create text descriptions for master data or

load text descriptions for master data into BW. Texts are
Customer ID TXTMD stored in a text table. Example. In the text table, the Name
100321 PPD RUBTECH INC of the person responsible for the cost center is assigned to
the master data Person responsible for the cost center.
100322 DOW EUROPE GMBH
100323 COVESTRO LLC USA

Material Text Data:

Customer ID Lang TXTMD

10829 D INA/KEMAM E ULTRA PWD/45.36 KG FB DR
10829 E INA/KEMAM E ULTRA PWD/45.36 KG FB DR
10916 D MFD/KALZIUM STEHPLG PWD/22.68 KG BG
10916 E MFD/CALCIUM STEHPLG PWD/22.68KG BG

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4. Characteristic Info Object Modelling

New functionality of Characteristic Info Object Modelling in SAP BW/4HANA Modelling Tools:

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4.1 Enhance Master Data Update

This is one of New functionality of Info Object Modelling in SAP BW/4HANA Modelling Tools:

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4.1 Enhance Master Data Update

For Info Object Characteristics with attributes and/or texts, you can use the Enhanced Master Data
Update property in SAP BW/4HANA. This enables parallel loading of data. The Info Object characteristic
then has a structure like an Advanced Data Store object, with additional tables like an inbound table and
a change log. The enhanced master data update is useful if you want to load a large quantity of data or
load data from multiple Data Sources simultaneously. You can also load deltas from one Info Object into
another Info Object or ADSO.

New tables created when this property is defined:

1.Inbound table for attributes: /BIC/D<techn.Name>

2.Change log for attributes: /BIC/E<techn.Name>

3.Inbound table for texts: /BIC/F<techn.Name>

4.Change log for texts: /BIC/G<techn.Name>

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4.2 High Cardinality
There is a new setting, called high cardinality, for characteristics. This enables you to generate more than 2 billion
Characteristic Attribute for a characteristic.

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4.3 External SAP Hana View
One of the interesting feature in BW/4Hana info object is External SAP Hana View. We have 2 options here if
we go for Master data option then it won’t allow any measures in it and that is going to generate dimension
calculation view. If we choose “Reporting” option then it acts like a Cube.

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4.3 External SAP Hana View
If we go for Master data option it results Dimension Calculation View.

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4.3 External SAP Hana View
If we go for Reporting option it results Cube Calculation View.

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5. Key Figure Info Object Modelling.
New Functionality of Key Figure Info Object Modelling in SAP BW/4HANA.

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5. Key Figure Info Object Modelling.
Properties of Key Figure Info Object Modelling in SAP BW/4HANA.

1. High Precision is used to force the analytical engine to perform calculations using extra decimal places
instead of rounding.

2. Stock Coverage determines the number of periods of supply against planned or expected demand. 

3. Non-Cumulative property enables snapshots of stock position by period.

4. Attribute Only option can be set when a key figure is only to be used as an attribute of characteristics
instead of for report calculation.

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 Thank You
Abhishek Patel

© 2019 YASH Technologies | www.yash.com | Confidential

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