SAP Caratteristiche e cifre chiave del BW

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Characteristics and key figures in SAP BW define the structure of every query, where characteristics describe business dimensions and key figures hold the measurable values that formulas, calculated key figures, and restricted key figures refine for reporting.

  • 📊 caratteristiche: Characteristics describe business dimensions such as customer, product, or time in a query.
  • 🔢 Figure chiave: Key figures hold the measurable values such as revenue, quantity, or cost.
  • Impostazioni di visualizzazione: Display name, properties, and record options control how data appears to the user.
  • 💱 conversioni: Currency translation and unit conversion let key figures combine across currencies and units.
  • 🧮 Formulas, CKF and RKF: Local formulas, calculated key figures, and restricted key figures refine reporting.
  • 🤖 Assistenza AI: SAP Analytics Cloud and Joule add natural-language queries and augmented insights.

SAP BW Characteristics and Key Figures

What Are Characteristics and Key Figures in SAP BW?

In SAP BW, a query is built from characteristics and key figures. Caratteristiche describe the business dimensions of the data, such as customer, product, or fiscal period. Figure chiave hold the measurable values, such as revenue, quantity, or cost.

The settings below control how characteristics and key figures are displayed and calculated, and how formulas, calculated key figures, and restricted key figures refine the results.

Impostazioni caratteristiche – Nome visualizzato

Per impostazione predefinita, quando una caratteristica viene aggiunta alla query, viene visualizzata la descrizione specificata in SAP BW. It is possible to replace this with customized text as follows:

  1. Clicca su Proprietà.
  2. Seleziona la scheda Generale.
  3. Inserire il Descriptione.

SAP Characteristics Settings Display Name

Impostazioni caratteristiche – Proprietà dello schermo

  1. Selezionare la scheda Visualizzazione della finestra delle proprietà della caratteristica selezionata.
  2. The “Display as” option is used to display either only the Key, only the Text, or both Key and Text.
  3. If a characteristic has two or more of Short / Medium / Long Text populated, “Text View” is used to display the corresponding text.
  4. It is possible to sort data ascending or descending either by the characteristic or any of its attributes.
  5. The “Result Rows” option is used to show or hide the sub-total for the underlying characteristic.

Characteristics Settings Display Properties

Impostazioni caratteristiche – Visualizza record

The display option is used to define what data is viewed by the user during data selection (in filters) and after report execution.

  1. Selezionare la scheda Avanzate della finestra delle proprietà della caratteristica selezionata.
  2. Tipo di accesso per i valori dei risultati. Scegli uno di questi valori.
  • “Posted values” shows only records that have some transactions associated with them.
  • “Master Data” displays all master data records irrespective of whether a transaction exists for them. It is ineffective if used with zero suppression.
  1. Selezione del valore del filtro. Scegli uno di questi valori.
  • Only Posted Values for Navigation: the system displays only posted values from the current navigational state.
  • Only Values in InfoProvider: the system displays only values contained in the InfoProvider.
  • Values in Master Data Table: faster, but may result in zero records matching the selection criteria.

Characteristics Settings Display Records

Impostazioni degli indici: nome visualizzato

Per impostazione predefinita, quando una cifra chiave viene aggiunta alla query, viene visualizzata la descrizione specificata in SAP BW. It is possible to replace this with customized text as follows:

  1. Clicca su Proprietà.
  2. Seleziona la scheda Generale.
  3. Inserire il Descriptione.

SAP Key Figure Settings Display Name

Impostazioni degli indici – Proprietà di visualizzazione

  1. Selezionare la scheda Visualizza della finestra delle proprietà della cifra chiave selezionata.
  2. Nascondere:
  • The options “Always Show” and “Always Hide” are self-explanatory.
  • “Hide (Can be Shown)” keeps a key figure hidden in the default output, but the user can later display it using filters.
  1. Number of Decimal places can be used to restrict the decimals displayed in the report.
  2. Scaling factor is used to show data in thousands, hundreds, and so on.
  3. The sign of key figures can be reversed if required. For example, Sales Quantity is a negative movement from the inventory perspective but positive from the sales perspective.

SAP Key Figure Settings Display Properties

Impostazioni delle cifre chiave: conversione di valuta o unità

BW does not allow cumulating amounts in different units, for example one rupee to one dollar or one kilogram to one yard. When data exists in multiple currencies or units, all records must be converted to a single currency or unit using Currency Translation or Unit Conversion. The translation can be dynamic (using a selection screen variable) or static (with the target currency or unit hardcoded). The advantage of doing this in SAP BW è che importa direttamente i fattori di conversione disponibili in SAP ERP.

  1. Seleziona la scheda Conversioni.
  2. Per la conversione valutaria è possibile utilizzare questa opzione.
  3. Per la conversione delle unità è possibile utilizzare questa opzione.

Conversione di valuta o unità

Impostazioni degli indici – Aggregazione

Progettazione di query gives the flexibility of calculating aggregates such as average, summation, and minimum. Similar calculations can also be performed on row-level data.

  1. Seleziona la scheda Calcoli.
  2. Select from the different options available under the drop-down of “Calculate Results As”.

SAP Key Figure Settings Aggregation

Cifre chiave – Formula locale

BW allows the use of formulas on data coming from the InfoProvider to provide calculated values to the user, for example subtracCosto di ting da Revenue to calculate Profit.

Steps to Create a Formula

Passo 1)

  1. Right click on the structure “Key Figure”.
  2. Click on “New Formula”.

SAP Steps to Create Formula

Passo 2) Click on the edit button of the properties box to create or edit a local formula.

SAP Steps to Create Formula

Passo 3) Alcuni degli operatori comuni utilizzati in BW includono:

  • Addizione, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division.
  • NODIM displays key figures without their corresponding unit.
  • NOERR displays zero instead of an error message, for example zero instead of a division-by-zero error.
  • %GT shows the value of a key figure as a percentage of the total value.
  1. In the “Detail View” box, enter the formula.
  2. Utilizzare gli operatori da “Operacasella "torri".

SAP Steps to Create Formula

Cifre chiave – Cifra chiave calcolata

If the same calculation is required for multiple reports, it can be mapped to the InfoProvider instead of being created individually in each query. Such a key figure is called a “Calculated Key Figure” or CKF.

Once defined, it can be dragged into a query like any other key figure. The biggest advantage of this approach is that it enables global definitions of common calculated KPIs.

Passaggi per creare una cifra chiave calcolata:

  1. Navigate to the InfoProvider section.
  2. Right click on the Key Figures folder.
  3. Scegli l'opzione "Nuova cifra chiave calcolata".

SAP Key Figures Calculated Key Figure

Cifre chiave – Cifre chiave limitate

Restricted Key Figures (RKF) can be used to selectively apply filters to a specific KPI in the report, but not to the entire report, for example splitting sales into columns such as YTD (Year To Date) Sales and PYTD (Previous Year To Date) Sales.

Passo 1)

  1. Navigate to the InfoProvider section.
  2. Right click on the Key Figures folder.
  3. Scegli l'opzione "Nuova cifra chiave limitata".

SAP Key Figures Restricted Key Figure

Passo 2) Click on the edit button of the properties box to create or edit an RKF.

SAP Key Figures Restricted Key Figure

Passo 3) Nella schermata successiva è necessario inserire almeno una cifra chiave e una caratteristica per creare un RKF significativo.

  1. The key figure which is to be restricted.
  2. The characteristic may be restricted by a selection screen variable to make it a “Dynamic” RKF.
  3. It may also be restricted by a constant, for example year = 2008. In the screenshot, version is restricted with the constant value “1”.

SAP Key Figures Restricted Key Figure

Come CKF, anche gli RKF sono globali per InfoProvider e possono essere riutilizzati in più query utilizzando lo stesso InfoProvider.

Domande Frequenti

A calculated key figure applies a formula to existing key figures, such as revenue minus cost. A restricted key figure filters a single key figure by a characteristic value, such as year-to-date sales. Both are global to the InfoProvider.

A free characteristic is included in a query but not shown in the initial result. Users can drag it into rows or columns during navigation to drill down, giving flexible analysis without changing the query definition.

Exception aggregation defines how a key figure is summarized differently from standard summation, for example showing a counter, a last value, or an average per characteristic such as headcount per month rather than a running total.

IA in SAP Analytics Cloud adds augmented analytics: Smart Insights explains figures, Smart Discovery finds drivers, and the Just Ask feature answers natural-language questions, helping users explore BW data without building queries manually.

Increasingly, yes. Machine learning and the SAP Joule AI copilot can suggest key figures, propose calculated and restricted key figures, and recommend query structures, helping report designers build and optimize BW queries faster.

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