Influencing the Standard Derivation Procedure (SAP Library

Influencing the Standard Derivation Procedure

Use

The standard derivation procedure runs by default as follows:

If you have specified any conditions for running a derivation step (see below), the system starts by checking these conditions. If those conditions are not fulfilled, the system ignores the step.
The system checks to make sure that the source fields contain values. If one of the source fields is initial (blank for CHAR fields or "0" for NUMC fields), the system does not perform derivation.
Provided that some of the target fields for the derivation step are not yet populated with values, the step is carried out. If values are found, they are entered in the corresponding target fields, provided that those fields do not already contain a value. Fields that already contain values are not changed.
If no target values can be found in the derivation step to match the specified source field values, all the target fields remain unchanged. No error message is displayed for most derivation types. If the step is a derivation rule, however, the system issues an error message by default if no suitable target values are found.

This means that the default settings no longer allow fields that already contain values to be overwritten in characteristic derivation. You should note that the account assignment screen in CO-PA (dialog box Assignment to a Profitability Segment) in particular operates according to its own logic to determine which target fields are to be derived again and which ones do not need to be changed. You can use the derivation analysis function in the account assignment screen to perceive how this screen interacts with characteristic derivation.

Features

By using conditions such as step and field attributes, you can modify the standard derivation procedure.

Requirement

For each derivation step, you can to specify the condition under which the step should be executed. You do this by choosing Condition. A condition consists of a series of partial criteria that compare characteristics with the values they must have.

Example

You can specify that a step should only be executed if the sales organization is "0010" and the product number is greater than or equal to "P-100" and less than or equal to "P-199". Enter the following under Conditions:

Origin	Name	Description	Operand	Value	Description
CO-PA	ARTNR	Product number	>=	P-100	Pump 100
CO-PA	ARTNR	Product number	<=	P-199	Pump 199

You should note that the product number is a character field and is not numeric in the system. For this reason, the "greater/less than" criterion operates alphabetically according to the computer character set. This means that product number "100" is considered smaller than product number "20" because 100 (beginning with "1") comes before 20 (beginning with "2").

Step attributes

In the step attributes, you can choose Attributes to specify for each derivation step whether an error message should appear if no target values are found. For derivation rules, this option is automatically set as the default setting. If you do not want to maintain derivation rule values for every possible combination of source values, you should deactivate this error message display.

You can include the following additional step attributes in the derivation rules:

It should be possible to maintain rule values using the validity date

If you activate this attribute, you can then make derivation rule entries for rules that have a "valid from" date.

Optimize callup: no maintenance of "from-to" values.

If you can do without "from-to" values for rule entry maintenance, then it is advisable that you activate this attribute. Characteristic derivation is accelerated as a result.

Step ID for Direct Call

This attribute is not required in general. It is only useful if you program, for example, a batch input for the data input transaction KEDE and want to directly access maintenance for a specific rule. To activate this attribute, choose Jump -> Direct call using step ID. You can then enter one of the available step IDs.

Field attributes

By using the This graphic is explained in the accompanying text icon, you can specify field attributes for source and target fields.

For each source field, you can make a setting allowing it to contain initial values. This allows the system to perform derivation even if the source field does not contain a characteristic value.
For each target field, you can specify whether the step should overwrite the existing characteristic value. This guarantees that the value determined in this step will always be copied to the target field, even if that field already contains another value.

In the case of table callups, you can choose further options for selecting field attributes for source and target fields. For example, you can choose to consider just one part of each field.