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Constant Selection on a Characteristic (CSC)Locate this document in the navigation structure

If the Constant Selection property is set in a cell for a characteristic, the system does not apply any further selections with regard to the corresponding characteristic. A constant selection can therefore be seen as an exclusive or dominant selection.

Without the Constant Selection property, all filters described under Constant Selection affect a single cell, provided that these filters exist. In mathematical terms, this means that the filter that affects this cell is the intersection of filters (SF), (SD), (SA), (S1), (S2), (SC). Constant selection on characteristic M of the cell means that selections (SF), (SD) and (SA) are ignored with regard to characteristic M. Constant selection on the characteristic will be referred to from here on as (CSC).

Constant Selektion on Characteristic 0INFOPROV

Characteristic 0INFOPROV has a special role in MultiProviders. If the Constant Selection property is activated on 0INFOPROV, and there is a filter for a specific PartProvider contained in the MultiProvider, the system searches for all characteristics N of the MultiProvider, which are not filled by the corresponding PartProvider, filters N to the initial value '#' and automatically sets the Constant Selection property. For this cell, this basically means that all filters are deactivated on characteristics that are not supplied with data by the PartProvider. This make sense, as these filters could otherwise prevent the PartProvider from being displayed for this cell.

Example

If a PartProvider P1 does not contain characteristic Calendar Year, every filter on the calendar year that has the initial value would therefore normally prevent data from this PartProvider from flowing to the cell result. If the Constant Selection property is set on characteristic 0INFOPROV however, and filter 0INFOPROV = P1 is set on the structure element, all filters on the calendar year, which affect the cell externally (contained in (SF), (SD) or (SA)) do not affect the cell anymore.

Another example can be found here: Using Constant Selection with MultiProviders.

Recommendation

If the Constant Selection property is set on characteristic 0INFOPROV, there is the Display Values Not Posted addition (CSA). This would completely change how the property is processed. SAP recommends not not using this property anymore, and setting the Access Type for Result Values to Master Data for the characteristic instead. You do this under Properties on the Extended tab page in Query Designer (see Properties of the Characteristic).

Navigation Attributes and Dependent Characteristics

The analytic manager generally handles navigation attributes in the same way as independent characteristics. If the query uses a navigation attribute NA for the reference characteristic M, and the Constant Selection property is set for M (CSC), we recommend adding the navigation attribute to the selection without filters and setting the Constant Selection property.

We recommend the same procedure for time characteristics that are also treated as independent characteristics in the analytic manager (except for non-cumulatives and unposted values), and for any other characteristics for which a strict dependency is known.

Compound Characteristics

The Constant Selection property only ever affects the characteristic itself and does not automatically affect dependent (less specific) characteristics. We also recommend adding these to the selection and setting them as constant.