topic Re: Description in Application Development and Automation Discussions

Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:49:38 GMT

Hi,

Iam new to the ABAP.

Can any one tell me what is the need of maintaining separate table for desciptions in our standard SAP tables.

let us take an example of material number description, why can't we use maktx in MARA table itself. Why should we go for MAKT.

Thanks,

Radhika.

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:53:49 GMT

Hi Radhika,

Its a 4th Generation language and 4th generation language means its build on the concepts of RDMBS which means relational database management systems.

SO it follows all the principals of RDBMS normalization and hence the tables are linked to each other and not maintained in one single table.

Cheers

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:53:56 GMT

may be to maintain description in different languages , separate table is maintained

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:53:59 GMT

Hi Radhika,

If you try to maintain the material master using MM02 or MM42, you will find that the description can be maintained in multiple languages.

As a part of one of the normalization rules (you must have read during your computer studies), we keep separate table rather than having redundant master data.

Hope this helps.

regards,

Satya

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:54:08 GMT

Hi Radhika,

Very frequently do we get a requirement of getting the text for some object(material/vendor/customer) in our projects.If we query the main master data table just for a simple description(Which is having inofrmation about some many other things), the load on the main table will be very high.

To distribute the load on one single table, tables are maintained for texts.

And generally text fields are of more length, that make the table definition more cumbersome.

Regards,

ravi

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:54:16 GMT

hai radhika!

well makt is a description table where

description of the materials will be maintained in all the languages.this is the purpose of MAKT table.

Re: Description

athavanraja — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:54:22 GMT

one reason i can think of is you can have text for the same material in different languages.

Raja

Re: Description

abdul_hakim — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:55:46 GMT

Hi Radhika,

there are lots of business reason behind maintaing the details in a separte tables.you can also ask question like why we need MARA,MARC,MAKT tables why don't we have all the details in a single table..The answer is there are certain restrictions and business reasons and hence SAP is having thousands of tables.As an ABAP Developer you don't need to bother about it..Ok..

Cheers,

Abdul

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:03:17 GMT

Hai Radhika

go through the documents Normalization Technics or Read Codd's Rules

If you Include Maktx field in MARA Table .

I have a material Availavle in 10 Different Languages

then you have 10 records for the same material in Mara Table

when we retrive data from Mara table it is somemore difficulte

so they were maintain MASTER CHILD Tables

Both Tables having the same Primary Key

Thanks & Regards

Sreenivasulu P

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:05:32 GMT

Why Iam asking is just for single field(Description) why shud we go for another table. If we use the same in MARA table itself no need to query the other table while doing selection right. performance wise also comparatively better i guess.

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:08:57 GMT

Radhika,

Like Vijay mentioned in his post, its the simple RDBMS rule.

When you can have multiple descriptions in multiple languages you cannot repeat the entire row of MARA for each description. So, you have a child table MAKT and have the descriptions in there.

The same logic applies to others as well.

Hope you get the point now.

Regards,

Ravi

Note : Please mark the helpful answers

Re: Description

abdul_hakim — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:09:24 GMT

If such is the case then you need maintain the master data in each language which will make your table more complex...As i told you before there is no use in arguing this factor since there are lots of business and technical reasons behind having the data spread across multiple tables......

Cheers,

Abdul Hakim

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:11:37 GMT

Hello Radhika,

<b>Why Iam asking is just for single field(Description) why shud we go for another table. If we use the same in MARA table itself no need to query the other table while doing selection right. performance wise also comparatively better i guess.</b>

What u say is very correct but since SAP is released inmultiple languages thereby if u want to maintain text for a material in English and German then u wold have to maintain same record for 2 language.

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:28:59 GMT

Hi,

Dont think that Im arguing or doing something.

I have been asked in an interview like this..

Re: Description

abdul_hakim — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:30:55 GMT

hi radhika,

you can answer in such situation like there are lots of business and technical reason behind having data spread across multiple tables.i don't know why are asking this useless question..

Please close the thread if your question has been answered..

Cheers,

Abdul Hakim

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:46:25 GMT

Hello Radhika,

For such thing u need to reply as based on the concepts of RDBMS and nomalisation the tables holding the text is separated out than master table. This avoids duplication of data.

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:50:39 GMT

Hi Radhika,

To tell in in much simpler terms,

MARA- the key field is matnr

MAKT- the key field is matnr and spras.

So for the same material, you will not have same number of records in those tables(YOu will have unique description only if you specify the language).

This applies for all text tables(Not only makt).

all the text tables will have a language field.

We cannot include an adtional field (Language in the main table) just for this reason(all other info will remain same whatever the language may be).

Regards,

Ravi

Re: Description

abdul_hakim — Mon, 08 May 2006 11:12:16 GMT

i have some useful interview questions with me.i will forward it to your email..ok..

All the best...

Cheers,

Abdul Hakim

Re: Description

Former Member — Mon, 08 May 2006 11:22:45 GMT

Thanks

Re: Description

Former Member — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:55:47 GMT