Master Data Types: Attributes, Texts and Hierarchies

Master Data Types

Attributes

Attributes are InfoObjects that are logically subordinate to a characteristic and that cannot be selected in the query.

Example

You assign the attributes Person responsible for the cost center and Telephone number of the person responsible for the cost center (characteristics as attributes), as well as Size of the cost center in square meters (key figure as attribute) to a Cost Center.

XXL Attributes

XXL attributes are XXL InfoObjects, which are logically assigned to the characteristic. You can use XXL InfoObjects to save additional information for a characteristic as data type STRING or XSTRING.

Texts

You can create text descriptions for master data or load text descriptions for master data into BW. Texts are stored in a text table.

Example

In the text table, the Name of the person responsible for the cost center is assigned to the master data Person responsible for the cost center.

Hierarchies

A hierarchy serves as a context and structure for a characteristic according to individual sort criteria. For more detailed information, see Hierarchies.

Features

Time-dependent attributes:

If the characteristic has at least one time-dependent attribute, a time interval is specified for this attribute. As master data must exist between the period of 01.01.1000 and 12.31.9999 in the database, the gaps are filled automatically.

Time-dependent texts:

If you create time-dependent texts, the system always displays the text for the key date in the query.

Time-dependent texts and attributes:

If texts and attributes are time-dependent, the time intervals do not have to agree.

Language-dependent texts:

You can specify whether texts are language-dependent (in the case of product names: for example, German — Auto, English — car) or not language-dependent (in the case of customer names, for example). The system only displays texts in the selected language.

If texts are language-dependent, you have to load all texts with a language flag.

Only texts exist:

You can also create texts only for a characteristic, without maintaining attributes. When you load texts, the system automatically generates the entries in the SID table.