General Data Selection 

Use

To define a report, you define the rows and column structure and the general selection criteria that apply to the report as a whole. The general selection criteria are the characteristics used to select data for your report. Your general data selection criteria can only contain those characteristics that are not already being used in the report rows and columns.

Features

To define the general data selection criteria for your report, choose Edit ® General data selection.

If you define data selection in a report with more than one account assignment object (such as cost centers and internal orders), you must make sure that all account assignment objects are completely defined in all sections.

In the orders section, you must add the characteristic cost center, while in the cost centers section you must add the characteristic order. The value for the cost centers in the order section, and for orders in the cost centers section, is always a pound sign (#).

Definition of 1st section:

Definition of 2nd section:

 

In the dialog box Element definition: General data selection, select from among the available characteristics those characteristics you want to use in general data selection. To select the characteristics, choose .

Enter values for the selected characteristics under Selected characteristics. You can enter individual values, intervals of values, groups, or variables.

The following characteristics must be defined in your report, either as data selection criteria, report rows, or report columns:

To improve processing time, you should specify all characteristics in general data selection that are not needed in the report rows or columns.

Since the relevant date for time-dependent master data in the Report Painter and Report Writer reports is the master data date, you should set this date explicitly such that all cost centers used in the report are valid on that date. To do this, choose Output parameters ® Master data date in the selection screen of the report.

If you enter specific values, intervals of values, or groups for a characteristic, your report is always executed using these values. The More indicator displays a list in which you can enter several intervals or individual values for the characteristic on which the cursor is positioned.

You define the characteristic Year as data selection criteria for your report and enter 2000 as the year. When the report is executed, the system only selects data records for the year 2000.

If you enter a variable for a characteristic, the system prompts you to enter a value for the variable on the Selection screen when you execute the report’s report group. The single value/set assigned to the variable appears as the default value on the selection screen. You can overwrite this default value if you want.

If you enter a variable as data selection criteria, the values you enter on the selection screen when executing the report’s report group are only valid for one report run. Each time you run the report, you can enter a different value for the variable.

To define a variable for a selection characteristic, turn on the Variable indicator in the relevant entry field in the column . Then choose Check to check the entry and refresh the screen. The input help function (F4) displays a list of available variables for the characteristic.

You create a set variable called CSTCTR for the characteristic Cost Center and enter a set name as the default value for the set variable. If you use this variable as data selection criteria in your report, the system asks you to enter a set name when you select the report data records. You can use the default set name assigned to the variable or another set.

The input help function always displays all variables for the relevant characteristic. Variables are displayed even if they are already being used in rows or columns.

You create variables within set maintenance. For more information, see Creating Variables.

Choose Confirm to conclude the definition of general data selection.

Variation

The variation function allows you to create a separate report for each element in a group (set) that is used as general data selection criteria in your report.

When you execute a report for which variation has been defined, you can enter a variation range for report execution on the selection screen or specify the output of reports for single values.

For more information, see Executing a Report Group. Within the report, you can then output individual reports online for the groups or individual values in the variation range.

Elimination of Internal Business Volume

For each characteristic, you can use the Elimination of internal business indicator to eliminate or display internal business volume in the report. Internal business volume represents the allocations that take place within one characteristic group.

For more information, see Elimination of Internal Business Volume and Activating Elimination of Internal Business Volume.

If both the variation of the selection and the internal business volume elimination are activated, the internal business volume is eliminated dynamically. When you navigate between the reports for the elements of the group in the report output, the internal business volume is redetermined for each element and then eliminated in the report.