Purpose

Sets are used in many components and subcomponents of the SAP system (such as reporting, planning, and currency translation). Before you can begin working with these components, you must first create the sets that you want to use.

Prerequisites

Before you create sets, you must decide how you want to use the sets to meet your business requirements. It is important that you determine how best to organize your set structures and which values you want to include in the sets.

For an overview of the different set types, see set types . Basic rules for creating sets are as follows:

Basic sets and single-dimension sets must use one dimension.

Single-dimension sets are a combination of basic and single-dimension sets with the same dimension.

As in basic sets you can also include values in single-dimension sets.

Multi-dimension sets are a combination of basic, data, and single-dimension sets with different dimensions.

You cannot combine a multi-dimension set with another multi-dimension set.

Process flow

To create a set, you perform the following steps:

Create the set header.

The information you enter in the set header applies to all values within the set.

For more information, see creating a set header .

Enter the set values.

The values you enter depend upon the type of set you are creating:

In basic sets, you enter specific values or ranges of values within one dimension. You can also enter all values defined for a specific dimension.

You can also include value and formula variables in a basic set when you want the system to prompt you for information when it uses the set. A variable is a placeholder for data to be specified when you run a report that uses the variable.

If you want to perform simple calculations within a set, you can enter formulas in basic sets.

If you create a basic set that is to be used by the Report Writer, you can enter data that the Report Writer uses for reports (such as symbolic names and format groups).

For more information, see entering basic set values .

In data sets, you enter basic key figures and key figures for currencies and quantities. You can also enter data that the Report Writer uses for reports (such as symbolic names and format groups).

If you want to perform simple calculations within a set, you can also enter formulas in data sets.

For more information, see entering data set values .

In single-dimension sets, you enter basic and single-dimension sets to build hierarchies with sets that use the same dimension.

As in basic sets you can also include values in single-dimension sets.

If you create a single-dimension set that is to be used by the Report Writer, you can also enter data that the Report Writer uses for reports (such as symbolic names and format groups).

For more information, see entering subordinate sets in single-dimension sets .

In multi-dimension sets, you enter basic, data, and single-dimension sets to build hierarchies with sets that use different dimensions.

You can also enter set variables in a multi-dimension set. A set variable is a variable that represents a defined set. Set variables give you the flexibility to change set values when a set is used by another system function (for example, in reporting).

If you create a multi-dimension set that is to be used by the Report Writer, you can enter data that the Report Writer uses for reports (such as symbolic names and format groups).

For more information, see entering multi-dimension set values .

Sets you created prior to Release 4.0 (Releases 3.x), are converted to these structures automatically. You do not need to recreate or change your existing sets.

However, the conversion program changes the names of the sets. The set names are followed by the suffix .<table name>.

In Release 3.0 or 3.1 you created a set for table GLT1 with the name ACCOUNTS. This set is automatically converted to a current set with the name ACCOUNTS.GLT1. You should note, however, that you only need to enter the name ACCOUNTS (and not ACCOUNTS.GLT1) when you use the set in the system. If there is more than one set called ACCOUNTS, the system displays a dialog box in which you select the appropriate set.