Suppose you have the following characteristics:

• 10 product master groups (each containing 10 product groups)
• 100 product groups (each containing 10 products)
• 1,000 products
• 100 customer groups (each containing 10 customers)
• 1,000 customers

In this example, the product master group is dependent on the product group, and the product group is dependent on the product. Furthermore, the customer group is dependent on the customer. No dependence exists between any other characteristics. Each customer purchases each product. This results in a million records (1000 products * 1000 customers) in the transaction database.

In your report, you wish to navigate from the list of product master groups over the characteristics product group, product and customer group to the customer. If, for this purpose, you define a report with all characteristics, this would lead to long response times when you execute the report online, as the data would be loaded at the lowest level of detail in the memory.

You can solve this problem as follows:

1. Define the first report over the free characteristics product master group, product group and product.
2. Now define the second report over all five characteristics, while defining the characteristics product master group, product group and product as reqiured entry fields. Define the characteristics customer group and customer as free characteristics.
3. Combine the reports using via the report/report interface.
4. For the first report, create a summarization level with the characteristics product master group, product group and product.

When you execute the first report, the system reads 1,000 records from the summarization level, as the product group and product master group are dependent on the product, and there are 1,000 products.

To navigate to the customer, navigate to a product in the first report. Now call up the second report using the report/report interface. As the three required entry fields are transferred from the first report, no more than 1,000 records can be read from the transaction database. For this product, you can now navigate to the customer.

In contrast to the single report with all characteristics, where the system reads a million records, in this case the system only reads 1,000 records twice. You can therefore execute the reports online.