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Quantity ConversionLocate this document in the navigation structure

Use

Quantity conversion allows you to convert key figures with units that have different units of measure in the source system into a uniform unit of measure in the BW system.

Features

This function makes it possible to convert updated data records from the source unit of measure into a target unit of measure, or into different target units of measure if the conversion is repeated. The functionality is similar to currency translation.

It is based in part on the quantity conversion functionality in the SAP NetWeaver Application Server. Simple conversions can be performed between units of measure that belong to the same dimension (such as meters to kilometers, kilograms to grams). You can also perform InfoObject-specific conversions (for example, two palettes (PAL) of material 4711 were ordered and this order quantity has to be converted to the stock quantity Carton (CAR)).

Quantity conversion is based on quantity conversion types. The business transaction rules for the conversion are set in the quantity conversion type. The conversion type is a combination of different parameters (conversion factors, source and target units of measure) that determine how the conversion is performed. More information: Quantity Conversion Types.

Integration

The quantity conversion type is stored for future use and can be used for quantity conversions in the transformation rules for InfoProviders and in Business Explorer:

In the transformation rules for InfoProviders you can specify for each key figure or data field whether quantity conversion is performed during the update. In certain cases, you can also run quantity conversion in user-defined routines in the transformation rules.

More information: Quantity Conversion in Transformations.

In Business Explorer you can do the following:

  • Establish a quantity conversion in the query definition.

  • Convert quantities at query runtime. Conversion is more limited here than in the query definition.

Recommendation

We recommend performing and storing the quantity conversion in the transformation. It is then already possible to access the converted values at query runtime, thus improving query runtime performance. The extent to which this happens depends on the amount of data to be converted.