Specify Attributes as Keys, Units, and Other Characteristics

Attributes are all columns that are not identified as measures, and can contain identifiers, master data, and other data that is used in support of analytics. Attributes appear in tables and views with any Semantic Usage except Relational Dataset.

Attributes are used in:

  • Facts - to contain the keys of associated dimensions. For example, Product ID or Store ID.

  • Dimensions - to contain categories for analyzing data and the keys for identifying them. For example, Country, Sales Organization, Customer.

  • Text entities - to contain texts in multiple languages and the keys for identifying them.

  • Hierarchies - to define parent-child relationships between dimension members.

Attributes are displayed in the Attributes section of tables and views. In the graphical view and sql view editors, click the Edit Columns button in the Attributes list to open and edit it in a dialog.
Attributes have the following properties:

Property

Description

Key

Select the checkbox to specify that the column is a primary key column, which uniquely identifies the record. Key columns cannot contain null values and each value (or set of combined values for multi-column compound keys) must be unique.

See also Set Key Columns to Uniquely Identify Records. To validate the data in your key columns, see "Key Validation Rules" in Validating View Data.

Business Name

Enter a descriptive name to help users identify the object. This name can be changed at any time.

Technical Name

Displays the name used in scripts and code, synchronized by default with the Business Name.

To override the default technical name, enter a new one in the field. Technical names can contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores.

Data Type

Select the type of data that the column will contain.

For a list of available data types and their supported data type conversions, see Column Data Types.

Semantic Type

Select the appropriate semantic type to understand the value in the column.

Choose from the following:

  • None - [default] No semantic meaning.

  • Currency Code - The column specifies the currency for one or more measures with the semantic type Amount with Currency. Attributes with this semantic type can be selected in the Measures list Unit Column.

  • Unit of Measure - The column specifies the unit for one or more measures with the semantic type Quantity with Unit. Attributes with this semantic type can be selected in the Measures list Unit Column.

  • Text - The column contains text. Attributes with this semantic type can be selected in the Text / Association field of other attributes or as Fallback Text for a text association.

  • Business Date..., Fiscal..., Calendar..., System Date... - The column contains a date or fiscal or calendar period.

  • Language - The column contains a language code.

  • Geolocation... - The column contains geo data.

For more information, see Specify Semantic Types for Measures and Attributes.

Text / Association

Specifies the purpose of the attribute when your entity is consumed by an analytic model.

This property can contain: It is automatically filled when you create an association or a text association and map the attribute as the source of the association. If you want to specify an attribute with a semantic type of Text to act as a label for the column, then you must manually select the attribute here.

Default Value

Enter an appropriate default value for the column.

Not Null

Select this option to indicate that the column must contain a value.

Show

[deprecated] Deselect the checkbox to hide the column from users in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Users working in analytic models can, for each measure and attribute, choose whether to include or exclude it in the data exposed to SAP Analytics Cloud (see Creating an Analytic Model).
In certain contexts, further actions are available in the Attributes list: