Defining Exceptions 

Prerequisites

You have executed a query. You want to define one or more exceptions for this query, and have chosen Change Query (global definition) from the BEx toolbar.

Procedure

Defining Exceptions

  1. Choose New Exception. (This menu path is under the pushbutton with the arrow pointing to the right, next to the Exception symbol). You get to the Defining Exceptions dialog box.
  1. Give a name for the exception in the Description field.

If you want to just define the exception, and do not want to execute it actively in the query, remove the check from the active field that is there by default.
  1. In the Evaluation for field, choose the structure elements, for which you want to evaluate the exception. Choose a structure element individually for every structure used, or use the everything setting to apply the exception to all the structure elements.

You want to evaluate the exception for the key figure Sales. Choose the value Sales from the selection field for the key figures structure.
  1. Choose the Exception values tabstrip.

Add one or more Alert level rows to the list. See Conditions/Exceptions: Inserting, Changing, Deleting Rows

An Alert level row consists of:

Specify floating point numbers for the from and to values. If you want to, you can leave either the from or the to value blank.

The format depends on the country setting in the operative system.

The following convention makes it easier to handle numbers with lots of zeros:

An apostrophe after the number means multiplied by one thousand, a quotation mark means multiplied by one million, and three apostrophe marks means multiplied by one billion, for example 1.5" = 1.5 mil = 1,500,000.

Assign the exception priority you want to use as an Alert level. In the Excel formatting templates, used as standard in the BEx Analyzer, a color ramp is used to display the priority given to an exception (dark green = good 1,...yellow = medium 5,...dark red = bad 9). There are a total of nine color shades, corresponding to nine different levels of priority.If you want to assign your own colors, choose Formatting ® Pattern from the BEx toolbar. (See also: Formatting)

All sales below 1,000 are bad, all sales above 100,000 are good, and all sales between these two values are medium. Define three Alert level rows to correspond to these three categories:

From

To

Alert Level

 

1,000

9 (bad)

1,000

100,000

5 (medium)

100,000

  

1 (good)

For report data, the alert level rows are processed in order. The alert level goes to the first row that is relevant for the report data.
  1. Choose the Cell Restrictions tabstrip, if you want to define more precisely, for which data cells of the report the exception is evaluated.

Add one or more cell restriction rows to the list. See Conditions/Exceptions: Inserting, Changing, Deleting Rows

A restriction row consists of

Choose from any of the free characteristics, or any of the characteristics from the rows and columns, that are used in a query. You cannot use characteristics that have already been used in another restriction row in the list.

Choose from the following operators:

Operators

Meaning

everything

The cell context is not restricted. The exception is valid for every drilldown status of the characteristic.

totals only

The exception is valid only for aggregated values of the characteristic.

everything except totals

The exception applies to all values of the characteristic apart from aggregated values.

fixed values

The exception is valid for only one particular value of the characteristic ("spare parts" under "product group", for example). Specify the characteristic value you want to use in external non-compounded display format, or call the value help (the pushbutton with the magnifying glass symbol) to choose a characteristic value.

level

The exception is valid only for a particular hierarchy level of the characteristic. Specify the hierarchy level you want to use as a number in the Value field.

In the hierarchy for the characteristic Location, Country is the second hierarchy level (continent – country – state – location) If you want the exception to be valid only for the hierarchy level Country, put the number 2 into the Value field. If you want the exception to be valid only for the hierarchy level State, put the number 3 into the Value field, because State is the third hierarchy level.

The standard default cell restriction only totals (recommended with absolute values) is applied to all those characteristics where you have not restricted the cells individually. This setting means that the exception is only valid for the aggregated values of this characteristic.

You are also able to use the default restriction everything (recommended for relative values) in the field Default operator used for all characteristics that are not displayed. This setting means that the exception is valid independently of the drilldown status of a characteristic, whose cell context has not been restricted. This does not qualify as a restriction.

We recommend that you only use this setting with relative values, percentage deviations, for example.
  1. Choose OK. You return to the query definition.
  2. Choose Save.

Changing Exceptions

  1. Choose Change exception. (This menu path is under the pushbutton with the arrow pointing to the right, next to the Exception symbol). You get to the selection window for the exceptions that have already been defined.
  2. Select the exception you want to use, and choose OK. You get to the dialog box Defining exceptions. This is where you make the changes.
  3. In the query definition, choose Save.

Deleting Exceptions

  1. Choose Exception. You get to the selection window for the exceptions that have already been defined.
  2. Select the exception you want to use, and choose Delete.
  3. In the query definition, choose Save.

Result

You have defined or changed an exception for a query. Execute the query. The exception is evaluated online. The cells that are affected by the exception are displayed with the appropriate color shading in the results area of the query.

The descriptions of the exceptions are displayed in the query view, where you activate/deactivate them by double-clicking on them individually, or by choosing Layout ® Display Exceptions from the context menu (right mouse click). The descriptions for the exceptions are inserted into the cell area below the filter cells.

Exceptions are evaluated in the background, if they involve a large number of queries, for example. Schedule the exceptions for background processing in the Administrator Workbench Reporting Agent.

See Reporting Agent, Evaluating Exceptions in the Background.