counter when in cube?

[Former Member]

Hello BW Experts,

1) what are the scenarios we use the counters in the cube. One scenario i can think of is, in the deliveries cube, in case we need to count the number of items in the delivery then we add the counter (keyfigure infobject) and '=1' in the update rules. The effet of this would be, when the report is run drilldown by deliveries would give the number of items in the counter column. In case we drilldown to the level of material / item level then we see value 1 in the counter column.

2) Is it a standard practice to keep counter in the cube ( as part of modelling )?

Any suggestions appreciatd.

Thanks,

BWer

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

IMHO there is no reason for keeping a key figure named 'counter' in the cube, just for counting records. If you count something, you should know what you want to count -> and you should give an right name to it ;-).

ad. 1.) Why don't you call your 'counter' as 'number of items in the delivery' ? ;-).

BR

Wojciech

[former_member195980]

We actually do usually use a counter as a key figure in infocubes. It often comes handy when doing calculations etc in queries. And performance is much better than creating a calculated query key figure to count, because it has to drilldown to the most detailed leve.

Regards,

Beat Stoller

The Swiss Post

[former_member188975]

Hi BWer,

It is common to keep a counter as a part of the cube design. It is useful in cases that you need to count the occurences of a char relative to one or more chars in the report. There is a white paper on the same too...

Hope this helps...

[Former Member]

Thanks Bhanu,

Wondeirng if is there any other logic implemented other than the one logic i described.

Thanks,

BWer

[Former Member]

Hi Bhanu,

Could you write where is this whitepaper or how is the name of if ?

thanks

Wojciech

[edwin_harpino]

hi Wojciech,

it's 'how to count the occurence of a characteristics...'

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/7e58e690-0201-0010-fd85-a2f...

hi BWer,

yes, keep counter in infocube is 'standard' use.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Thanks for explanation.

I fully agree that there are a lot of situation where we can need to have a information about the numer of fact occurencies in ICube.

But i think we should always try to give to this fact an right name - and not call it just 'counter'. When we model an InfCube, the first thing we do, is 'declaring the grain' (e.g. invoice position ....) . Than we know what we keep in the cube -> and my practice was to name it (e.g. number of invoice positions).

Wojciech