Start of Content Area

Procedure documentation Deleting Attributes and Texts for a Characteristic   Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

Use

You can delete attributes and texts directly from the master data table. Unlike when deleting at single record level, you can use this function to delete all existing attributes and texts of a characteristic in one action.

Prerequisites

In order to delete master data there must be no transaction data in the BW system for the master data in question. The data must not be used as an attribute for InfoObjects and there must not be any hierarchies for this master data.

To be able to use the enhanced functions starting from point 3 in the procedure, you need to activate them. To do this, open the Data Warehousing Workbench, choose Settings → Global Settings and set the flag for Master Data Deletion by Package.

Procedure

       1.      You are in the Modeling functional area in Data Warehousing Workbench. In the InfoObject tree, choose Delete Master Data from the context menu for your InfoObject.

       2.      When you delete master data, you can choose whether entries in the SID table of the characteristic are to be retained or deleted.

If you delete the SID table entry for a particular characteristic value, the SID value assigned to the characteristic value is lost. If you reload attributes for this characteristic value later, a new SID value has to be created for the characteristic value. This has a negative effect on the runtime required for loading. In some cases, deleting entries from the SID table can also lead to serious data inconsistencies. This occurs if the list of used SID values generated from the where-used list is not comprehensive.

Delete, Retaining SIDs

For the reasons given above, you should choose this option as standard. If for example you want to make sure that individual attributes of the characteristic that are not needed any more are deleted before you load master data attributes or texts, the option of deleting master data but retaining the entries from the SID table is completely adequate.                        

Delete with SIDs

Note that it is not usually necessary to delete entries from the SID table. Deleting entries from the SID table does make sense for example if the composition of the characteristic key fundamentally changes, and you want to swap a larger record of values with a new record that contains new key values.  

       3.      You can choose whether or not the texts will be deleted.

       4.      You can select the search mode. The search mode has a significant effect on the run time for the where-used list. You can select from the following search modes:

○       O – Only one usage per value:

If the where-used list has found a value, this value is not searched for anymore in the other InfoProviders. This search mode is the default setting. If you just want to delete all values that are not used anymore, it can be a good idea not to investigate any further and thus keep the runtime for the where-used list low.

○       P – One usage per value per InfoProvider:

Each value is searches in each InfoProvider. Once a hit is found for one InfoProvider, the value is not searched anymore. This search mode is recommended if you are interested in the usage: You can find out which InfoProvider you need to delete from first, before you can delete them all.

○       E – One usage is enough:

If a value has been found once, the search will stop. This setting is recommended if you only want to fully delete the attributes and texts.

○       A - All usages of all values:

Every values is searched for once in each InfoProvider. Every usage is counted. This is a complete where-used list. This search mode has the longest runtime and is only recommended if you are interested in all usages.

       5.      You can decide to have the deletion process run in the background.

       6.      You can simulate the master data deletion. The where-used list is then run without master data being deleted. Note however that the list of usages might not be complete, as no locks are set during the simulation.

       7.      Choose Start. The programs checks the entries in the master data table to see if they are used in other objects. If the master data is used, you can either only delete records that are not used or view the where-used list.

       8.      When the deletion process has finished, you receive a message and can view the log. This shows the where-used list and the list of deleted records.

 

End of Content Area