Extraction Using the SAP Query 

The SAP query is a comprehensive tool to define reports. It uses many different forms of reporting. It allows users to define and execute their own evaluations of data in the SAP system without knowing anything about ABAP.

To determine the structure of evaluations, texts are entered in the SAP query, field and options are also selected. The selection of relevant fields is made easier by using InfoSets and functional groups.

An InfoSet is a special view on a set of data (logical database, table join, table, sequential file). It serves as a data source in the SAP query. An InfoSet determines the tables and fields of these tables are included within an evaluation. InfoSets are usually based on logical databases.

The maintenance of InfoSets represents a component of the SAP query. When an InfoSet is created, a data source is selected in an application system. As the number of fields of a data source can be very high, fields can be combined into logical units, the functional groups. Functional groups are groups of different fields for a logical unit within an InfoSet. Fields that are to be used in an extract structure must be assigned to a functional group. All fields of all functional groups for this InfoSet are available for generic data extraction.

SAP Query is important for the Business Information Warehouse in the definition of the extract structure by selecting fields of a logical database, a table join or other datasets in an InfoSet. You can use generic data extraction for master- or transaction data from any InfoSet. A query is generated for an InfoSet that gets data and transfers this data to the generic extractor.

Thus, InfoSets are an additional, easily manageable data source for generic data extraction. They allow you to use logical databases of all SAP applications, table joins, and further datasets as data sources for BI. For more information about SAP Query, in particular InfoSets, see the SAP Query documentation -> System Administration.

In the following section, the terms SAP Query and InfoSet are used independently of the source system release. SAP Query is the same as an ABAP Query or ABAP/4 query, dependent on the source system release. The InfoSet is also called a functional area in some source system releases.