Characteristic Properties (SAP Library

Characteristic Properties

Use

You can set a range of functions in the Characteristic Properties dialog box for a specific characteristic, such as order type. These settings then affect all key figures for this characteristic in a query drilldown.

Features

Description

The name of the characteristic appears automatically here. You can overwrite this text. The new text is different to the text provided in the InfoObject maintenance and is used in the query display.

Technical Name

The technical name of the characteristic is displayed here.

Display As

You can determine here whether and in which format you want to present the individual characteristic values of the characteristic.

No Display: The characteristic display is hidden. This function is useful, for example, with the Currency/Unit characteristic since the currencies are also shown in the key figures.

Key and Name: The characteristic values are displayed as the technical key followed by the shortest available text.

Name: The characteristic values are shown by their shortest available text.

Key: The characteristic values are shown by their technical key.

Name and Key: The characteristic values are displayed as the shortest available name followed by the technical key.

Long Description: The characteristic values are shown by their long text.

Medium Name: The characteristic values are shown by their mid-length text.

Note

In the Display As dropdown box, the system offers only those texts for selection that were created for this attribute in the characteristic InfoObject maintenance. See Tabstrip: Master Data/Texts.

No Display and Key are always offered.

Key and Name, Name, Name and Key are offered additionally if a text (short, medium or long) has been created for this characteristic.

Medium Name is offered if a mid-length text has been created.

Long Name is offered if a long text was created.

Results Display

Suppress Results Rows

Here you can choose whether to suppress the results rows Never, Always or Only for One Value. Only for One Value means that only those results rows are suppressed that aggregate only one value, that is, the value and the result are identical and the results row repeats the same value.

Normalize to

You can set the normalization for a specific characteristic here. The display affects the key figures displayed in the drilldown by displaying the query data for the relevant result that you chose for the normalization as normalized. That is, the percentage display in relation to the result is displayed. The normalization process refers to a particular characteristic each time, and has various settings independently for each characteristic.

Note

Normalization for the characteristic only has an effect when the characteristic is in the drilldown.

You can choose from the following settings:

You can choose whether and for which result you want to normalize the values for this characteristic.

No Normalization

Result

All values are normalized for the result. The result equals the total result if there is only one characteristic in the drilldown.

Overall Result

All values are normalized to the overall result. If there are several characteristics in the drilldown, there are different results that are combined to form an overall result.

Query Result

All values are normalized to the query result. Each key figure for a query has a query result. This is the result of the key figure that results from the aggregation of all characteristics for the query.

Note

The overall result and the query result are identical, providing that none of the characteristics are in the filter.

Caution

The values of the results row and the overall results row are not displayed as percentages but as absolute values.

Recommendation

Since the function Normalize to affects all key figures here, unwanted results are often delivered. To avoid this, we recommend that you set the function Normalize to for each key figure. For more information, see Calculate Single Values As....

Cumulated

If you choose this function, the system sorts the list in ascending order according to key. All the structure elements (key figures) are subsequently aggregated to the n+1 characteristic value, one after the other, for each of the nth characteristic values. With time characteristics, the missing characteristic values are included wherever necessary.

Example

The following example illustrates the concept of Cumulated function:

Values	Cumulated Values
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	10

Caution

If, for this function, you subsequently choose a different sorting method, the numbers become difficult to make sense of.

Do not chose the cumulate output function to use with more than one characteristic.

Recommendation

Since the function Cumulated affects all key figures here, unwanted results are often delivered. To avoid this, we recommend that you set the function Cumulative for each key figure. For more information, see Calculate Single Values As....

Sorting

Here you can set the sorting within the characteristic according to the Key or Name in Ascending or Descending order.

If a characteristic has attributes, you can sort the characteristic by attribute. The attribute involved does not have to be chosen for the display.

Example

You want to sort your articles according to specific criteria. To do this, you create an attribute for the Article characteristic that contains these criteria and you can now sort the articles by this attribute.

By default, the values are sorted as they are defined in the query definition. If you have not specified a filter value in the query definition, the system sorts the values according to the key.

Presentation Hierarchy

You can present the characteristic hierarchically. Choose This graphic is explained in the accompanying text to select a hierarchy. The hierarchy is flagged automatically as an active presentation hierarchy. When you deactivate the Active selection box, the characteristic is displayed in the query not as a hierarchy but as a basic list.

Note

If you restrict the characteristic to a hierarchy node, the node hierarchy is adopted automatically as the presentation hierarchy. You can deactivate the presentation hierarchy here if necessary.

You can set the sorting within the hierarchy according to the Key or Name in Ascending or Descending order. If you do not make any entries, the values are sorted as determined in the hierarchy.

Each hierarchy has certain properties that you specify in the hierarchy definition. You can override the following hierarchy properties for the current hierarchy:

Expand to Level

In the column B (user settings), select the checkbox and enter a numerical value for the hierarchy level that you want to expand the hierarchy to.

Position of Child Nodes

In column B (user settings), select the checkbox and choose whether you want to position child nodes Down or Up. Choose Up if, for example, you want to see the overall result at the bottom.

Values of Posted Nodes

In column B (user settings), select the checkbox and choose whether you want to Display or Suppress the values of posted nodes.

In hierarchies, nodes always display the aggregated values of the subordinate nodes and leaves. If a node has a posted values, you cannot see this. To display this posted value, an additional leave is inserted, which has the same name as the node. This leaf displays the value posted to the node.

Example

In the following example, you can see that for cost center A1, an additional leaf has been inserted and that the value of cost center A1 itself, namely 10, is displayed. This additional leaf does not exist in the hierarchy. You can display or suppress this leaf (with the value of the posted node).

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Nodes with Only One Child

In column B (user settings), select the checkbox and choose whether you want to Display or Suppress the values of nodes with only one child. Suppressing nodes with only one child helps you to reach the more detailed information quickly.

Example

In the following example, Cost Center A and Cost Center A.1. contain the same information since Cost Center A has only one child in the hierarchy. If you are interested in the detailed data for the individual cost centers, you can suppress the uppermost node with only one child as this does not contain any additional information.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Activities

Drag a characteristic into a directory in the Query Designer (rows, columns, free characteristics or filter), select it and, from the context menu, choose Properties. The Characteristic Properties dialog box appears.