What is SAP HANA Automated Predictive Library (APL)?

SAP HANA APL is an Application Function Library (AFL) which lets you use the data mining capabilities of the SAP Predictive Analytics automated analytics engine on your customer datasets stored in SAP HANA.

The APL is:
  • A set of functions that you use to implement a predictive modeling process in order to answer simple business questions on your customer datasets.
  • A set of simplified APL procedures: SAPL (Simple APL) that you can also use to call the APL functions.
You can create the following types of models to answer your business questions:
  • Classification/Regression models
  • Clustering models
  • Time series analysis models
  • Recommendation models
  • Social network analysis models
Note The APL isn't supported on multi-tenant configurations of SAP HANA.
The APL functions are split into the following three service categories:
Table 1: APL Service Categories
Service What you can do
Predictive model services
  • Create models and train them in order to obtain the best model for analyzing your new data, and apply the analysis model to your dataset.
  • Apply models to new datasets in order to analyze the content and make decisions.
  • Query models; For example, retrieve variable descriptions, variable statistics, model indicators, profit curves, and reporting information.
Predictive business services Apply higher-level and simpler predictive services to the data, without materializing a predictive model.
Technical services. Retrieve technical information about the APL component.
Note

APL can be used to delegate SAP Predictive Analytics model training to SAP HANA. Using APL to Delegate Predictive Analytics Model Training to HANA.

Most of the concepts in this guide are documented in detail in the SAP Predictive Analytics documentation, available in the Analytics > SAP Predictive Analytics section of the help portal at: http://help.sap.com/pa.