Pattern Selection for DTP with source as DataSource (PSA)

It is not very known fact. At least it was in my case. I was a bit surprised when I realized that my DTP created on top DataSource which was extracting data from it via PSA didn’t pull any data. My case was that I had a filter on DTP where pattern selection was used.

Precisely speaking I had a wildcard used for selection like *something*. Once I ran it no data came. I tried to put precise value instead of the wildcards and it worked. I turned to SAP Support portal and I found a SAP Notes explain this behavior.

Actually this feature is not available in some of BW system. Depending on version of the BW it is only available in higher SP packages. TO be able to use this feature BW needs to be upgraded to these specific versions of the SP – see below.

There is one setting available in DataSource that is influencing behavior of particular field within the DataSource. It is called “Selection Options” and is present on tab Fields of DS maintenance screen. It basically drives what selection options can be processed for the DataSource field. Its values are stored in table RSDSSEGFD-SELOPTS (table has an info on DataSource - Segment Fields). There can be following values for the field set:

0        Undefined Selection Options

1        Selection EQ Permitted

2        Selection BT Permitted

3        Selection EQ, BT Permitted

7        Selection EQ, BT, CP Permitted

More information:

- For BW 7.00 and 7.01 see Note: 2509844 –SP37: Pattern Selection not possible for DTP with source as DataSource (PSA)

- For BW 7.30 and 7.40 see Note: 2150323 - 730SP14: Pattern Selection not possible for DTP with source as DataSource (PSA)

Max no of records to see in PSA maintenance screen

Recently I needed to check large data set in PSA. I wanted to list all data records that arrived to PSA from source system. Source was getting me over 3 millions of records. On PSA maintenance selection screen there is a possibility to specify no of records that is supposed to be displayed. Even I had approx. 3 millions of records I was not able to get them all into PSA’s output screen.

I tried to debug the functionality which displays the data. I found out that within the code there is limit on no of records to be displayed:

MODULE user_command_0500 INPUT.
...
  if g_record_max >= 2147483647.
    g_record_max = 2147483646.
  endif.

...

The limit is 2,147,483,647. Even if I would exceed the number on the screen by entering higher no I would be getting following error:

To be honest I’m not sure why I was not able to pull out all the records. Finally I managed it differently as I went directly to corresponding PSA transparent table via SE11. So at the end it was not an issue; but I’m curious to know why I cannot see more (all) the records.

PS: no 2,147,483,647 is prime number and is one of only four known double Mersenne primes. It has strong significance in computing because it is the maximum value for a 32-bit signed integer (int).

My other posts on PSA topic:

Deletion of data row from PSA

How to search for the data in PSA – choice 1

How to search for the data in PSA – choice 2

How to search for the data in PSA – choice 2.

How to search for the data in PSA – choice 2.

In my previous post I showed how to search for the date in PSA via standard transparent table in dictationary which underlay behind the PSA. There is another possibility more convenient in BW manner. The idea is to create DataSource of PSA and then check the data with standard BW tool: Extractor checker (TA RSA3).

At first we create DataSource for particular node in PSA tree. Navigate yourself in the PSA tree and choose item “Generate Export DataSource” from right click menu. In this way SAP BW does generates a DataSource for your PSA object.

Once this operation is has successfully finished you should be able to see similar message like following:

Click on the icon of DataSource to explore your newly created DataSource:

On the next screen take a look on the name of your DataSource in field DataSource.

As a next step you can perform PSA searching in Extractor checker. Start up TA: RSA3 and choose your Datasource technical name form previous screen as a DataSource name.

Now just run extraction. Please feel free to filter out entries based on Selection section of RSA3 selection screen.

How to search for the data in PSA – choice 1.

Once you are working with SAP Business Warehouse (BW) your job is about data analysis most likely. You need to find check the data in data targets (info cubes/ODSs) explore how data got into these objects, what is the transformation logic and when the bug is somewhere here to compare the data in source or in the PSA area with the data in targets.

One of the ways how to search for the data in PSA is described in following material. First navigate to your DataSource in PSA tree within Modeling section in Administrator section in TA RSA1 and choose “Delete PSA data” item from right click menu:

On next screen that appears scroll to right first section of screen and try to find field called “DDIC table of the PSA”. The content of this field is dictationary table of the PDA data.

You can browse it in SE 11 for instance:

Here you can choose “Contents” icon or use keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+F10.