Tab: General

On the General tab, you can view the properties of the characteristic and make various settings.

General

This area displays the technical name and the description.

You can change the description. The new description text is different to the text in InfoObject maintenance and is used in the query display.

Value Output Format

Under Value Output, the system displays the output type. To change this, choose .

Under Display As, you can specify whether the values of the characteristic are displayed, and how. You can choose here from the options created for the characteristic in InfoObject maintenance. The following table provides an overview of the possible display options in the BW system:

Table 1: Display Type
Display Type	Description
Do Not Display	No display: The characteristic is hidden. This function is particularly useful with the currency/unit characteristic for example, since the currencies are also displayed in the key figures.
[Key] Text	Key and Text: The characteristic values are displayed by means of their technical key and their description text.
Text	Text: The characteristic values are displayed by means of their description text.
[Key]	Key: The characteristic values are displayed by means of their technical key.
Text [Key]	Text and Key: The characteristic values are displayed by means of their description text and their technical key.

If you set a display type that contains text, you can select a particular text type under Text Output Format. You have the following possibilities:

Table 2: Text Display
Display Type	Description
Standard	Standard: The shortest available text is used for the characteristic values.
Short	Short text: The short text for the characteristic values is used.
Medium	Medium text: The medium text for the characteristic values is used.
Long	Long text: The long text for the characteristic values is used.

Sorting

Under Sorting, the system displays the sorting criteria. To change this, choose .

Table 3: Sorting Criteria
Criterion	Description
Sorting Attribute	Sorting Attribute: Select either this characteristic or the attribute that you want to sort by. Tip 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 sort the articles by this attribute.
Sort by	Sort by: Text or Key
Sort Direction	Sort Direction: Ascending or descending

Result Output Format

Here, you can decide under which conditions and in what form you want result rows to be displayed:

Table 4: Result Row Display
Option	Description
Always	Always: The result rows are always displayed.
Only if more than one child	If there is more than one individual value: The result rows are displayed if there are two or more individual values.
Never	Never: The result rows are always suppressed.

Cumulate Values: You can specify for each characteristic that the key figure values can be cumulated for the relevant characteristic attributes - regardless of the aggregation behavior of the key figure.

Example

If the key figure has the standard aggregation SUM, the individual values of an area are cumulated; the first value is added to the second value, the result is added to the third value, and so on.
If the key figure has the standard aggregation MIN, the system checks two consecutive values to determine which value is smaller. The systems this value as the cumulative value and compares it to the third single value.

In the columns, the values are cumulated from top to bottom, and in the rows, the values are cumulated from left to right. With blocks of single values, a drilldown in both the rows and the columns, the values are cumulated from top to bottom and from left to right.

Caution

Note that you can only cumulate with characteristic values and not with the structural elements of a characteristic structure. The Cumulate Values function only takes effect if you have a characteristic instead of a characteristic structure in the drilldown. If you use two structures however - the key figure structure and a characteristic structure - you can cumulate using cell-specific definitions.

Display Level

This allows you to categorize a characteristic in the filter. This means that you can categorize purely technically filters (which are not relevant for end users) as the detail overview (In Detailed Overview Only). These are then only displayed if the detailed view is set for display in the front end. You can therefore create a special view of the filtered characteristics that is tailored to end users.

The following categorizations are available:

Also in Simple Overview The characteristic always appears in the list of static filters
In Normal Overview The characteristic only appears in the list of static filters if the (In Normal Overview) or (In Detailed Overview Only) option is selected.
In Detailed Overview Only The characteristic only appears in the list of static filters if the (In Detailed Overview Only) option is selected.

Extended

Under Access Type for Result Values, you can define the access type for result values. You have the following options:

Table 5: Access Type for Result Values
Option	Description
Master Data	Master data: When the query is executed, a row of data is always displayed for the characteristic. As long as values have been maintained for this characteristic in the master data, they will be displayed here. The display does not depend on transaction data.
Posted Values	Posted values: When the query is executed, a row of data is only displayed for the characteristic if there are posted values for this characteristic.
Characteristic Relationships	Characteristic Relationships: When the query is executed, a row of data is only displayed for the characteristic if you have modeled corresponding characteristic relationships.

Under Filter Value Selection, you can define how filter values are selected when the query is executed. You have the following options:

Table 6: Filter Value Selection During Query Execution
Option	Description
Only Values in InfoProvider	Only values in the InfoProvider: The system only displays values contained in the InfoProvider.
Values in Master Data Table	Values in the master data table: The system displays all characteristic values from the master data, independently of transaction data.
Only Posted Values for Navigation	Only posted values for navigation: The system displays posted values only.

Under Refresh Variables, you can define how to refresh the variables that you use in default values or for defining presentation hierarchies. You have the following options:

Table 7: Refresh Variables
Option	Description
Dynamically	Refresh dynamically: If you choose this option, the system refreshes the application using the settings from the current navigation view.
As Designed	Refresh in accordance with the design: If you choose this option, the system refreshes the application using the hierarchy and filter settings in the query definition.