Creating Hierarchies
In
InfoObject maintenance, the hierarchy basic characteristic is set as a
characteristic with Hierarchies (see
Tab Page:
Hierarchy).
You can create hierarchies in two ways; either from the SAP Easy Access Menu or hierarchy maintenance in the Data Warehousing Workbench.
● On the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Modeling → Master Data Maintenance → Hierarchies. The Initial Screen Hierarchy Editing dialog box appears.
● You are in the Data Warehousing Workbench in the Modeling functional area. You can access hierarchy editing in the following ways:
○ In the InfoObject tree, you can choose Create Hierarchy from the context menu of the required InfoObject.
○
In the
Data Warehousing Workbench, you can
call hierarchy maintenance in the symbol bar by choosing
Edit Hierarchies. The Initial Screen Hierarchy Editing dialog
box appears.
Access from InfoObject tree
1. In the Data Warehousing Workbench under Modeling, choose the InfoObject tree.
2. If you have assigned the hierarchy basic characteristic to an InfoObject catalog, select the corresponding InfoObject catalog for an InfoArea.
If the hierarchy basic characteristic does not belong to an InfoObject catalog, choose the InfoArea Unassigned Nodes and the InfoObject Catalog Unassigned Characteristics.
3. Select the characteristic for which you want to create a hierarchy and choose Create Hierarchy from the context menu. The Create Hierarchy dialog box appears. The InfoObject name appears by default.
4. Enter a hierarchy name and description (short, medium, long). Other fields may be displayed, depending on which hierarchy properties were selected for the hierarchy basic characteristic.

Fields used to enter the Validity (valid to, valid from) for the hierarchy property Total Hierarchy Time-Dependent
Fields used to specify the Hierarchy Version for the hierarchy property Hierarchies Version-Dependent.
5. Confirm your entries. The Maintain Hierarchy screen appears. You can define the structure of a hierarchy here.
6.
To create a
hierarchy node, you first need to choose an insertion mode:
Insert as First Child
or
Insert As Next Neighbor
(see Hierarchy Editing
Functions).
7. Choose the type of node you want to create: Text Node, Characteristic Node, <Hierarchy Basic Characteristic Node> or Interval (see Hierarchy Nodes)
The system inserts the required node. The following symbols are used:
Nodes that cannot be posted
Text Nodes
Foreign Characteristic Nodes
Nodes that can be posted
<Hierarchy Basic
Characteristic Nodes>
Intervals
You can insert additional nodes in the context menu for a node. You can also call editing functions for the selected node.
8. Repeat this procedure until the hierarchy structure has been set. For more information, see Modeling Nodes and Leaves.

A hierarchy can contain 50,000-100,000 leaves at most. If your hierarchy is larger, you should insert a level that is used as a navigation attribute or preferably as a separate characteristic in the dimension table.
9. You can use Level Maintenance and Hierarchy Attributes to set how the hierarchy is to be displayed and processed in reporting (see Level Maintenance and Hierarchy Attributes).
10. Save the hierarchy.
11. Activate the hierarchy. See Editing Hierarchies.
Access Using Edit Hierarchies
...
1.
In the Data Warehousing Workbench toolbar,
choose
Edit Hierarchies. The
Initial Screen: Hierarchy Editing
appears with a list of all hierarchies in your BW system.
2. Restrict this list to the required hierarchy basic characteristic or select an existing hierarchy for it. (For more information about this dialog box, see Editing Hierarchies.)
3.
Choose
Create
Hierarchies. The Create
Hierarchy dialog box appears. The InfoObject name appears by default. The
subsequent steps are the same as those described above (4.-11.).
...
The
hierarchy is activated (
) and
can be used in aggregates and in reporting.
See also: