Tab Page: General (SAP Library - Administrator Workbench)

Tab Page: General

Use

In this tab page, you determine the basic properties of the characteristic.

Structure

Dictionary

Specify the data type and the data length. The system provides you with a list to choose from in the F4 Help.

The following data types are supported for characteristics:

Char:	Numbers and letters	Character length 1 - 60
Numc:	Numbers only	Character length 1 - 60
Dats:	Date	Character length 8
Tims:	Time	Character length 6

For authorizations, only the first 32 characters are interpreted.

Miscellaneous

Lowercase letters allowed / not allowed

If this indicator is set, the system differentiates between lowercase letters and capital letters when you use a screen template to input values. If this indicator is not set, the system converts all the letters into capital letters when you use a screen template to input values.

Note

If you choose to allow the use of lowercase letters, you must be aware of what happens when you input variables:

If you want to use the characteristic in variables, the system is only able to find the values for the characteristic if the lowercase letters and the capital letters are typed in accurately on the input screen for variables. If, on the other hand, you do not allow the use of lowercase letters, any characters that you type onto the input screen, are converted automatically into capital letters.

Exclusive attributes:

If you select exclusive attribute, the created characteristic can be used only as a display attribute for another characteristic, and not as an independent characteristic or navigation attribute in the InfoCube/ODS object. You can choose the Lower-Case Letters option as a characteristic value for the CHAR field type.

Note

If you use lowercase letters in an attribute, the system is unable to create a master data table. The attribute cannot have any hierarchies, nor can it be used as a navigation attribute.

Characteristic is a Property of a Document

You can specify that a characteristic be used as a document property. This enables you to assign a comment (this can be any document) to a combination of characteristic values and a key figure. See also Documents.

Note

Since it does not make sense to use this comment function for all characteristics, you need to identify explicitly the characteristics that you want to appear in the comments.

If you use this property, the system generates a property (attribute) for this characteristic in the metamodel of the document management system. For technical reasons, this property (attribute) has to be written to a (dummy) transport request (the appropriate dialog box appears) but it is not actually transported.

Constants

By assigning a constant to a characteristic, you give it a fixed value. This means that the characteristic is available on the database (for verifications, for example) but is no longer relevant to reporting (no aggregation / drilldown is possible for this characteristic). Assigning a constant is most useful with compounded characteristics.

Example

The storage location characteristic is compounded with the plant characteristic. If only one plant is ever run within the application, a constant can be assigned to the plant. The verification for the storage-location master table runs correctly with this value for the plant. In the query, however, only the storage location appears as a characteristic.

Special Case:

If you want to assign the SPACE constant (type CHAR) or 00..0 (type NUMC) to the characteristic, type # in the first position.

Transfer Routine

When you create a transfer routine, it is valid globally for the characteristic, and is included in all the transfer rules. If, for example, you upload data from various source systems, you need to maintain the transfer routine only once. On the other hand, when you maintain the transfer rules between the transfer structure and the communication structure, you have the option of assigning a local transfer routine to a characteristic.

Note

If you have created a local and a global transfer routine, both are used (the local transfer routine first, and then the global transfer routine).