Formula Variable with Replacement path Business scenario Step by step guide

How to use Replacement Path Variables to perform Date Calculations

A Step-by-Step guide

Have you ever wanted to perform calculations using dates defined as characteristics but have never worked out how it can be done? Replacement Path Variables are the key.

Using Replacement Path in your Text and Formula variables, replace values held in a characteristic. The Characteristic value variables are replaced by the results of a query at run-time.

The steps detailed below show a technique to enable a BEx query user to determine the number of days between two dates.

Scenario:
The group HR administrator wants a detailed line item report that lists all employee absences in a given period. The report is to show the employee number, the absence start date, together with the end date of the absence and show the number of calendar days the employee was absent.

The good thing about using this technique is that no redesign work is needed from your technical BW team, no ABAP is involved and best of all, it quick and easy.

Solution:
For this example I created an ODS object called Absence that holds basic employee information along with individual absence record data.

Follow the steps below:

1. Open the BEx Query Designer and create a new report on your chosen InfoProvider.
2. Drag the Employee, Valid from and Valid to characteristics into the Rows section of the screen. If needed, apply data selection restrictions to the characteristics as shown in Figure 1.
3. Right click on the Key Figures structure and select New Formula (Figure 1).
   
   
    Figure 1
4. In the new formula window right click on Formula Variable and choose New Variable ( Figure 2 ).
   
   
    Figure 2
5. The Variables Wizard will launch and will require you to specify the variable details.
   ( Click the NEXT button if the Introduction screen appears )
6. Enter the variable details on the General Information as shown in Figure 3 .
   Enter the Variable Name , Description and select Replacement Path in the Processing by field.
   Click the Next Button.
   
   
    Figure 3
7. In the Characteristic screen (Figure 4) select the date characteristic that represents the first date to use in the calculation (From Date).
   Click the Next Button.
   
   
    Figure 4
8. In the Replacement Path screen (Figure 5) select Key in the Replace Variable with field. Leave all the other options as they are (The offset values will be set automatically).
   Click the Next Button.
   
   
    Figure 5
9. In the Currencies and Units screen (Figure 6) select Date as the Dimension ID.
   Click the Next button.
   
   
    Figure 6
10. The Save Variable screen (Figure 7) displays a summary of the new variable.
    Click on the Finish button to save the variable.
    
    
     Figure 7
11. Repeat steps 4 to 11 to create a second variable for the second date to be used in the calculation. In the example shown, the characteristic 0DATETO is used to create the variable ABSEND (Absence End Date).

Define the Calculation

We can now use our two new replacement variables to define our new calculated key figure that generates the number of absence days for each record.

1. You will now be back at the New Formula screen (Figure 8). Drag and drop the two new variables into the formula section of the screen and insert the subtract sign (“-“) between the two.
2. Give the new formula a description and click the formula syntax check button  to ensure the formula is valid.
   
   
    Figure 8
3. The new calculated key figure will now show in the columns section of the BEx query designer (Figure 9).
   
   
   Figure 9
4. Save the query and execute it.

In the example shown the Number of Calendar Days Absent is calculated correctly. See the table of results below.

Employee	Valid From	Valid To	Number of Calendar Days Absent
50000001	17/04/2004	21/04/2004	4
50000002	16/07/2004	29/09/2004	13
50000003	07/01/2004	09/02/2004	33
50000004	04/08/2004	05/08/2004	1

Step by step procedure for Currency conversion in SAP BI

Click Here

SAP BI interview Questions 4

1.)    Did ever heard about brain td in dtp’s?

2.)    What about integrated planning?

3.)    What is navigational attributes?

4.)    What variables available in sap BW?

5.)    What is customer exit? in which scenario you have used this?

6.)    Restricted key figures are global so for local what is option?

7.)    What is compounding of in object?

8.)    What are aggregates in BW?

9.)    Aggregates formula?

10.) You have done with hr project? What is HR flow?

11.) What are the steps in LO?

12.) What is generic extraction?

13.) What type of deltas available in LO?

14.) About v3 job scheduling?

15.) Which tables you have used in LO?

16.) What is your module in R3?

17.) Attribute change run?

18.) Rollup?

19.) DSO types?

20.) Where we have to write routines?

21.) What is the table name of write-optimized dso?

SAP BO Interview Questions 3

1.)    What is aggregate awareness?

2.)    What are derived tables?

3.)    Features in Xcelsius?

4.)    Drill down and dynamic visibility in Xcelsius?

5.)    How to migrate Xcelsius dashboard which has qaaws and lifeoffice connection

6.)    What loops are in sap bo?

7.)    What are the traps?

8.)    Where you have written the prompt function?

9.)    Is that pivot table function is supported in Xcelsius?

10.) What are the input and output (data manager)s in Xcelsius while you are creating dashboard on BW?

11.) Sections and breaks in Webi?

12.) Input control option in Webi reporting?

13.) What is different between query level filter and report level filter?

SAP BI BO Interview questions 2

Hello here some more interview question for SAP BI BO

1.)    Tell me about your technical background and project details

2.)    Do you know what if analysis in Xcelsius?

3.)    What type of dashboards you have developed?

4.)    Do you know merge dimensions in Webi ?Why it exactly needed

5.)    Why universe exactly?

6.)    Can one universe connect to multiple BEx queries?

7.)    What are the types of info cube? Which you have used in your project?

8.)    Did you ever written any function module?

9.)    If you work on multi providers on cube for reporting which info provider you have used multi provider or info cube?

10.) What is schema you have used in SAP BI?

11.) Difference between star schema and extended star schema?

12.) If you fire a query in BEx first it will go to fact table or dimension table?

13.) What type of BEx queries you have developed?

14.) What are types of info objects?

15.) What are types of DSO’s?

16.) What are the types of DTP’s? Explain?

17.) What are the types of Variables in BEx?

18.) What are the processing types of variables?

19.) Give me one real time scenario for formula variable?

20.) Did u know anything about exit in BEx?

21.) I do have choice to use standard extractor what is the alternative?

22.) Which data source you have used while working with r3?

23.) Generic extraction types mean on which we can create these generic extractors?

24.) Which type of generic extractor you have used?

25.) What are the delta types in standard extractors?

26.) How do you chose the tools among the webi, crystal, Xcelsius among reporting?

27.) What is the backend for you crystal report?

28.) What are the challenges you faced in crystal reports?

29.) What type of crystal report you have developed?

30.) Do you know CMC?

31.) How did you schedule these crystal reports in BO?

32.) What are the types of output format of crystal report while doing scheduling?

33.) Did you implement template for whole organization? Or reports? While working with crystal report?

34.) In your crystal report you have used colors those colors requirement given by client or you only chosen?

35.) What are types of routines in SAP BI?

36.) Did you ever implement expert routine?

37.) Did you observe the option only for particular info object (setting) in transformation level while starting routines?

38.) What is IDT?

DSO Activation failed possible errors

DSO Activation Failed Errors in SAP BI

Most of the cases we will face below errors in DSO Activation.

1) Activation of M records from Data Store object terminated.
    i) SQL Error while reading table in database.

    ii) No batch process available. Process terminated

2) Request not exist in DSO and DSO is inconsistent. You will get request number.

Now we will see the solutions for the above issue.

1) i) : a) Right click on your DSO in RSA1 and click on manage.Please check if you have any red request in request tab of DSO.

In request tab below, you will find option "Request Display: Date of Update From" change this date to one or two months back and click on refresh. you will get the old request now, now check if you have any red request.

b) If you find any red request, click on monitor tab and make the technical status to red. Now come back and make the request status red in request tab of DSO.Delete the request from request tab.

c) Activate the DSO now, it will get successful.

1) ii) : You will get this error, if you don't have enough background processes in your server.

a) check number of background processes maintained by going into tcode RSODSO_SETTINGS.

Please follow the below steps to rectify this error.

a) go to manage tab of DSO. now go to request tab and select the request and click on activate.

b) In the next screen select the request you want to activate.

c) Now click on parallel activation

  

d) In the next screen, you will get the no of parallel processes maintained for DSO activation. Make this to 1 and save it.(By default we will have 3)

 

e) Now click on activate, this time your DSO will get activate successfully.

for more details you can refer below thread as well.

SDN thread

 2) : You will get this error if someone is wrongly deleted the request from manage of DSO. wrongly means properly making the request red and deleting from manage tab. If request is deleted from manage tab but still present in back end tables then you will get this error.

The request loaded to the DSO will be stored in the following back end tables.

RSICCONT, RSMONICDP, RSODSACTUPDTYPE and RSODSACTREQ.

If we have any discrepancy between these four tables, we will get the above error.

Apart from this error we will get the request number in error log. We need to delete that request number from these four tables if it exist.

please check the note 868391 for details.

Hope this will be useful...

SAP BI BO Interview Question

Here I am sharing my interview experience with you

24/may/2012
As usual today my interview start with regular question Tell Me about Your Self,After Technical discussion came into picture,Some of the technical questions are below Probably I will share answer for these with you soon
1.) what is you landscape in SAP BI and as well as SAP BO?
2.)which tool your are using for transport in SAP BO environment?
3.) What are the steps in transportation of SAP BI object from one environment to another environment?
4.)Is it mandatory or user have to give the destination system of BI while doing transportation means after click on transport button?
5.)Common loading data error in SAP BI?
6.)what are steps to do transport in SAP BO?
5.)What is your team size and hierarchy?(Non technical any be prepare for this type question while going to interview)
6.)what are the first step to do in implementation phase SAP BI project?
7.)How to find whether you infoObject is SAP defined or user defined How did you achieve this?
8.)How to install and activate the business content object?what are the steps involved?
9.)where did you check the locked idocs?
10.)Why DSO activation failed?
11.)why did you get error(request red due to special characters) while updating data into data targets the same not happening while updating from source system to PSA?
12.)Where do you tell the BW system or data targets to allow some specific special characters?
13.) What is difference CMC and infoview?

These are the question I have faced at today interview. Appreciate if any one provide the Answers in comments

Thankyou
Keep reed find new things

Links to download documents

Links
Most articles by Surendra Reddy (SDN Top user) for SAP BI you can downland his document by clicking on below,Here he has given so many business scenarios with step by step document like customer exits all codes including on ytd calculations etc.
Click here you will be redirected
                                                                                                                                         Source: Wiki SDN

SAP BI BO Questions Corner(Question of the day)

Hi 

Welcome to question of day for SAPBI  BO with simple Answer

13/June/2012

13/June/2012


04/June/2012
04/June/2012
04/June/2012
04/June/2012
04/June/2012
04/June/2012
05/June/2012
Q.14 In which scenarios u have used ABAP (ABAP team)?
Ans Basically we can use ABAP Code in multiple scenarios while we are implementing BI project
Here some scenarios I have in used in my recent project
As you know in SAP BI 7.0 Four types routines are supported like
  1.)Characterstic routine
2.) Start Routine
3.) end routine
4.) Expert routine
Characteristic routine: Is for simple routine used in project for calculation purpose at transformation level
Example you have 3 info object a.) cost price b.)net price c.) profit
You have to calculate profit info object value (formula: net price- cost price)based on other infoobjects(cost price and net price)
In this scenarios we can use is characteristic routine This can be done at report level also by using calculated key figure or formula.
The difference between Start routine and end routine is start routine perform its operation before trasformations(befor data loading ) end routine performs its operation after transformation(after data loading )
Scenarios for these start routine and end routines are


Start routine you can use in the scenario of while you want to load based on one condition like if sales > 1000 then only load otherwise no for this scenario we can use this routine
End routine we can use in situation we want to delete the records with zero sales value in this case we can use End routine(performs it operation after transformation)


Expert routine is totally different which will use in case of while our transformation not helping. In this case we can go for expert routine .Delete all our transformation and create the expert routine 
Need perfect scenario for Expert routine Click Here


For all types routines document Click here


And also we can use these abap in customer exit at reporting level


Scenarios for customer exit if suppose you want to pop up current month and year in variable(default value) then in this case you can use customer exit
Actually here istep functions we are using to generate the current the current month in customer exit
they are four types of isteps function available
istep0,istep1,istep2,istep3
istep0 is for authorization check
istep1 is for populating  default value (before variable pop up it operates)(current month)
istep2 is for generation previous month based on current mont or user input(operates after variable popup)
istep3 is validation check and to recall (not sure)


04/June/2012

Q.13 What is aggregate awareness in SAP BO?

Ans Aggregate awareness is one type of option used in universe for improving the performance of query while retrieving data

Example you have Objects like below in three table

Table 1  year

Year Sales Quantity sold

Year Qtr Month Sales Quantity sold

Year Qtr Sales Quantity sold

                                                                                       

                                                                                                                   

Tab1 (year)                 Tab2(year_qtr)            Tab3(year_qtr_mnt)

If you fire a query on year and sales then query don’t where to fetch the data because year object is available in three table

For this purpose we have to written the aggregate awareness function for objects in universe

Aggregate awareness for year object is

Rt click on year objectàin where section write like

@agregate_awareness(year.year,year_qtr.year,year_qtr_mnt.year)

Syntax:@agregate_awareness(table1.column,table2.column,table3,column…….)

Here table 1 is high priority and table n(last table) is low priority for query to redirect

So if you select year and sales in query the query easily goes to tab1(year) because as per aggregate awareness you have year tab1 has high preference so it directly goes to tab1

Like this you have to write aggregate awareness for all objects

For qtr

@agregate_awareness(year_qtr.qtr,year_qtr_mnt.qtr)

For month

@aggregate awareness(year_qtr_mnt.mnt)

Suppose if you mnt qtr sales objects are using in you query ,Query will directly goes to tab3 because mnt is available in tab3 only and also as per aggregate awareness function qtr ,mnt available in tab3 only

We can write this aggregate awareness function for measure objects also

Syntax @aggregate_awareness(sum(table1.column),sum(table2.column),sum(table3.column)……)

For sale

@aggregate_awareness(sum(year.sales),sum(year_qtr.sales),sum(year_qtr_mnt.sales))

qtr,mnt object are not available in tab1(year) so we have to do aggregate navigation for this

Goto toolsàaggregate navigationàselect tab1(year) rt side all object will get disply

Check for qtr,mnt for this tab1(year)

Like this we have do same aggregate navigation function for mnt also in tab2(year_qtr) because mnt is also not available in tab2(year_qtr)

Some go to toolsà aggregate navigationà select tab2(year_qtr) rt side check for mnt

If you do this aggregate navigation for those objects(mnt),if query using the same object(mnt) then query will not redirect to tab2,tab1 because we did aggregate_navigation for Query will directly go to tab3 in which mnt object is available and as per aggregate awareness for mnt it is tab3

Ex:1 query contains year,mnt sales then query will directly redirect to tab3

Ex:2 query contain qtr,quantity sold then query will directly redirect to tab2

Ex:3 query contain year,qtr,sales then query will directly redirect to tab2

All these above 3 example queries retrieving data as per aggregate awareness and aggregate navigation.
To know more about aggregate awareness Click here

04/June/2012
Q.12 What is line item dimension in SAP BI?
ANS When we have size of dimension table greater than 20%(SAP Recommendation) of fact table then we should make that dimension table as line item dimension

How to know the dimension table size have more than 20% of fact table:

Using table: SAP _INFOCUBE_DESIGNS

There you will get all the cubes and their dimension table size So you can easily find which does have high size

Use: By making dimension table as line item dimension then no dimension table is created for that particular table, SID will take the role of dimensions table.

Improve the performance by creating SQL quires at database level instead of at BI side to retrieve data (when you fire a query)

Disadvantage: No possibility of add new characteristic to dimension table
For step by step procedure Click Here

03/June/2012

Q.11 We have RKF in BEX that is global for local what is the option?

ANS For local we have option called SELECTION(rt click in rows/columns --> SELECTION)

02/June/2012

Q.10 If you fire a query  on info cube at first to which table that query will redirect? to fact table or dimension table?

ANS Obviously to Dimension table because Dimension table consists of characteristics while fact table consists of key figure,Initially query checks for characteristics and then go to fact table for key figures (making calculations here) 

01/June/2012

Q.9 what is the table nams of write optimized DSO?

ANS Actually write optimized DSO consists of only one table which store active data there is no specific name for this table,And also the data in this table available for Reporting,

One thing here in Write optimized DSO  no SID are created at time of data loading SID will get generate at time of reporting,It results poor performance.

And also maintain semantic key for data uniqueness,if you perform check on data uniqueness option at DSO properties level 

31/May/2012
Q.8 Types of DSO's available in SAP BI 7.X?
ANS There are 3 types of DSO's available in SAP BI 7.X
1.Standard DSO : which contains three table a.) Activation queue table(New data table)
                                                                    b.)Active data table
                                                                    c.) Change log table
When ever you load the data initially it get store in New data table,Data in this table not available for reporting
After activation only data move to Active data tale,and data is available for reporting
2.Write optimized DSO: Which contains single table .Data loaded directly to this table no activation need
This is used for when you large set of data use this WDSO before data loading in to cube,standard dso for testing purpose 
3.) Direct update DSO: For this no transformation required to load data,which is updated direclty by function module,from datasource.
30/May/2012
Q.7 What is KPI?
ANS KPI means Key performance indication in business organization which show the performance of particular division in organization,
Example : Total work force is one type KPI related HR division in organization which show the employees and their details 
29/May/2012
Q.6 What is compounding of info object in SAP BI? Explain briefly?

ANS Suppose you have two info object like ZSTORE and ZCITY

ZSTORE infoobject have values like S1,S2,S3(Store1,store2,store3)

ZCITY infobject have values like Bangalore,Hyderabad,Delhi

Hyderabad has stores s1,s2,s3 ,Bangalore has stores s1,s2……etc

Zstore infoobject definition in incomple with out object zcity

If you use ZSTORE to show sales  in you query no use with that infoobject your results like might be

S1        100

S2         300

S3         890

By this you do not know  the store1, 2,3 belongs to which city.

So here definition of info object (ZSTORE) is incomplete with out compound info object (ZCITY)

We need to add compound info object (ZCITY) to info object(ZSTORE) in compounding tab  info  object(ZSTORE) level

What happened after adding ?

Once you add the compound object to info object ,when ever you add the object(ZSTORE) to info providers automatically it compound object zcity also got added to your info provider

Now if you use this object (zstore) in query zcity object also added automatically because it is compounding info object the results looks like

Zcity/zstore     sales

Bangalore/s1     499

Bangalore/s2     435

Hyderabad/s1   458

Hyderabad/s2    599

S this is meaning full query For this we have to add the compounding info object

28/May/2012
Q.5 What are types of info objects available in SAP BI?
ANS. They are five types of info objects available in SAP BI ,
1. Characteristics, 
2. Key figures 
3.Unit Characteristics, 
4. Time Characteristics 
5.Technical Characteristics
27/May/2012
Q.4 What is tcode used to allow special characters in SAP BW system?
 ANS. T-code:RSKC
26/May/2012
Q.3 What are the traps in SAP BO ? What are the steps to solve traps?
ANS. Generally,In SAP BO we might face 2 types of traps while construction universe on relational database.
They are one Fan trap and second one is Chasm trap
Fan trap occurs when two tables have join 1 to n happens two times simultaneously(Ex:1-->n,1--.n) the we face a fan trap.This can be solved by using alias for last table 
Chasm trap occurs when two fact tables connect with single dimension table the Chasm trap occur This can be solved by making context for these fact tables
25/May/2012
Q.2 what is the tool used to transport the universe from dev to prod?
ANS. In SAP BO 3.1 XI R3 it is import wizard the transportation procedure changed in SAP BO 4.0 with LCM(Life cycle management tool) 
24/May/2012.
Q.1 What is SAP BI?
ANS:SAP Business intelligence is a approach to integrate the data from different datasources into single data source to make reports for organization help in decision making for their organization by management.


Hope you like this post. Have any question can ask  in comments colomns,Correct me if any thing found wrong

Walk-ins for SAP BI BO Positions In Bangalore

Cognizant Have Opening for SAP BO Position and SAP BI Position on 26 May 2012
Interview Date   : 26 May 2012
Positions           : SAP BI and SAP BO 
Company          : Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt Ltd
Experience        : 3-12
Location            : Banglore


Apply using these Links : SAP BO : jobs.monsterindia.com/details/11546495.html
          SAP BI  :http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/11546387.html?sig=js-1-c96640b7a1eae604dabbfaa9d5c2917b-1&from=
                                                                                                          -Source: Monster India








Walk in Date 17 Mar 2012
Position : SAP BI
Company : BRISTLE CONE
Experience : 3 +
Location : Bangalore

Link : http://jobsearch.naukri.com/job-listings-Walk-in-Interview-Sat-17th-March-2012-for-SAP-BI-Bangalore-BRISTLECONE-Bengaluru-Bangalore-3-to-5-years-120312002155?xz=0_0_25&xid=2012Mar13&f=-120312002155-

About Blog

Hi All

This blog will share you all about SAP BI BO technology, Concepts, Techniques , Interview Questions, Interview Updates.

And also you can find the links to SAP BI BO technical sites as well

We are trying to update this blog on daily basis for better interaction

You can also post you quires regarding SAP BI BO.

This is blog is totally those you want to be with SAP BI BO career.

You can check these blog for  walk-in interviews in India Locations.

Hope by reading this blog you got good information about SAP BI BO

Start reading find good things