Tab Page: Compounding
In this tab page, you determine whether you want to compound the characteristic to other InfoObjects. You sometimes need to compound InfoObjects in order to map the data model. Some InfoObjects cannot be defined uniquely without compounding.
For example, if storage location A for plant B is not the same as storage location A for plant C, you can only evaluate the characteristic Storage Location in connection with Plant. In this case, compound characteristic Storage Location to Plant, so that the characteristic is unique.
One particular option with compounding is the possibility of compounding characteristics to the source system ID. You can do this by setting the Master Data Locally for Source Sys. indicator. You may need to do this if there are identical characteristic values for the same characteristic in different source systems, but these values indicate different objects.
The extensive use of compounded InfoObjects can influence performance, particularly if you include a lot of InfoObjects in compounding. Do not try to display hierarchical links through compounding. Use hierarchies instead.
A maximum of 13 characteristics can be compounded for an InfoObject. Note that characteristic values can also have a maximum of 60 characters. This includes the concatenated value, meaning the total length of the characteristic in compounding plus the length of the characteristic itself.
Reference InfoObjects
If an InfoObject has a reference InfoObject, it has its technical properties:
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For characteristics these are the data type and length as well as the master data (attributes, texts and hierarchies). The characteristic itself also has the operational semantics.
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For key figures, these are the key figure type, data type and the definition of the currency / unit of measure. However, the referencing key figure can have another aggregation.
These properties can only be maintained with the reference InfoObject.
Several InfoObjects can use the same reference InfoObject. InfoObjects of this type automatically have the same technical properties and master data.
The operational semantics, that is the properties such as description, display, text selection, relevance to authorization, person responsible, constant, and attribute exclusively, are also maintained with characteristics that are based on one reference characteristic.
The characteristic S old-to Party is based on the reference characteristic Customer and, therefore, has the same values, attributes, and texts.
More than one characteristic can have the same reference characteristic: The characteristics Sending Cost Center and Receiving Cost Center both have the reference characteristic Cost Center.
See the documentation on eliminating internal business volume.
Characteristic Constants
By assigning a constant to a characteristic, you give it a fixed value. The characteristic then exists on the database (for example, verifications), but it is not visible in the query.
The Storage Location characteristic is compounded with the Plant characteristic. If you only run one plant within the application, you can assign a constant to the plant. The validation for the storage-location master table runs correctly using the value for the plant.
Exception: If the constant SPACE (type CHAR) or 00..0 (type NUMC) is assigned to the characteristic, specify character # in the first position.