Preliminary Currency Conversion in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

[san_tran]

In SAP Data Warehouse we support the connection with SAP systems such as S/4Hana and BW/4Hana. These sources come with currency conversion function out of the box. This function is especially required for reporting and analytical purposes, to consolidate and aggregate amounts and values associated with different currencies.

Customers of SAP Data Warehouse expect same currency conversion capability, to assure consistency of results between the various SAP systems.

In this blog I want to show you, how to apply preliminary Currency Conversion in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud in three steps:

• Replicate the Currency Conversion tables from an SAP Source system (based on ABAP and SAP HANA)


• Create a new View


• Add new calculate column using the Currency Conversion function

 

Important Note

Please note, that this solution is only a preliminary solution for applying Currency Conversion in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. It should be used for testing purposes and non-productive environment only !

Known limitations:

• Only applicable on Graphical View


• No UX support, but using SQL script in the Calculated Column


• No input parameter support --> parameterization must be statically defined in the script


• Potential performance issues, due to missing optimization

 

Documentation on currency conversion

More information about currency conversion can be found on the SAP help site:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/7c78579ce9b14a669c1f3295b0d8ca16/Cloud/en-US/d22d746ed2951014bb7fb0114ff...

 

Recording

https://sapvideoa35699dc5.hana.ondemand.com/?entry_id=1_eortnemj

Apply Currency Conversion with Graphical View

Step 1: Replicate the Currency Conversion Tables

1. Make sure you have established a valid ABAP Connection in the Space Management of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud:


2. In the Data Builder create a (dummy) Graphical View:


3. Drag and Drop the Currency Tables from the ABAP Source into the Canvas. In the next popup dialog, please click on 'Import and Deploy' button. The required tables are the following:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   ABAP Table Name	Description
   TCURV	Configuration Table
   TCURX	Precisions Table
   TCURN	Notation Table
   TCURR	Rates Table
   TCURF	Prefactors Table
   TCURC	Currencies Table

   
   More details about the required tables are described in the SAP HANA SQL Reference Guide:
   https://help.sap.com/viewer/7c78579ce9b14a669c1f3295b0d8ca16/Cloud/en-US/d22d746ed2951014bb7fb0114ff...
   
    
   

   

   
   


4. Go to the Data Integration Monitor to replicate the content/data of the Currency Conversion tables into SAP Data Warehouse Cloud:

 

Step 2: Wrap the Currency Tables (TCUR*) as Views

Currently there is a known security boundary, that prevents Stories created in SAP Analytics Cloud to access directly any table in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. This applies also for Currency Tables such as TCURR, TCURV, TCURF and TCURX.

For the time being you have to wrap these Currency Tables as Views and declare them in the COVERT_CURRENCY function. Please create for that a new View V_TCURR by dragging and dropping the TCURR table into it.

Please repeat the same for the other tables, such as TCURX, TCURF, TCURV.

 

Step 3: Create a new Graphical View

1. Create a new Graphical View from the Data Builder


2. Add the ABAP Tables into the canvas, where the currency conversion shall be applied on. In my example it's the SFLIGHT demo table:

Step 4: Add new calculated column using the Currency Conversion function

1. Add a new calculation node and column into the graph:


2. Enter the Currency Conversion Function into the Expression. Please make sure that you are using the Wrapper Views for the currency tables (V_TCURR, V_TCURV, V_TCURF, V_TCURX😞
   

   CONVERT_CURRENCY(
   
   	"AMOUNT" => "PRICE", 
   
   	"SOURCE_UNIT" => "CURRENCY", 
   
   	"TARGET_UNIT" => 'EUR', 
   
   	"CONVERSION_TYPE" => 'M', 
   
   	"REFERENCE_DATE" => CURRENT_DATE, 
   
   	"CLIENT" => '002', 
   
   	"SCHEMA" => 'DEMO', 
   
   	"ERROR_HANDLING" => 'set_to_null', 
   
   	"STEPS" => 'shift,convert,round',
   
       "PRECISIONS_TABLE" => 'V_TCURX', 
   
       "CONFIGURATION_TABLE" => 'V_TCURV', 
   
       "PREFACTORS_TABLE" => 'V_TCURF', 
   
       "RATES_TABLE" => 'V_TCURR'
   
   )

   
   


3. Adjust basic parameters settings of the Currency Conversion Function:
   
   
   
   • AMOUNT: Column containing the values to be converted
   
   
   • SOURCE_UNIT: Source currency column
   
   
   • TARGET_UNIT: Target currency
   
   
   • REFERENCE_DATE: Reference date or dynamic variable CURRENT_DATE
   
   
   • CLIENT: ABAP Client
   
   
   • SCHEMA: Schema or Space name
   
   
   • CONFIGURATION_TABLE: The table identifier of the conversion type configuration (default TCURV)
   
   
   • PRECISIONS_TABLE: The table identifier of the precision table (default TCURX)
   
   
   • RATES_TABLE: The table identifier of the conversion rates table (default TCURR)
   
   
   • PREFACTORS_TABLE: The table identifier of the pre-factors table (default TCURF)
   
   
   
   


4. More information on the currency conversion can be found on the SAP HANA SQL Reference Guide.

 

Apply Currency Conversion with SQL View

Step 1: Create a new SQL View

alternatively you can also a SQL View instead, if you prefer to define your view via SQL Scripting.

1. Create a new SQL View from the Data Builder


2. Add the ABAP Tables into the canvas, where the currency conversion shall be applied on. In my example it's the SFLIGHT demo table:

Step 2: Wrap the Currency Tables (TCUR*) as Views

Currently there is a known security boundary, that prevents Stories created in SAP Analytics Cloud to access directly any table in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. This applies also for Currency Tables such as TCURR, TCURV, TCURF and TCURX.

For the time being you have to wrap these Currency Tables as Views and declare them in the COVERT_CURRENCY function. Please create for that a new View V_TCURR:

 

Step 3: Add new SQL View using the CONVERT_CURRENCY function:

1. Add a new calculation into SQL script:


2. Insert the Currency Conversion Function into the SQL Script. Please make sure that you are using the Wrapper Views for the currency tables (V_TCURR, V_TCURV, V_TCURF, V_TCURX😞
   

   SELECT "MANDT",
   
   	"CARRID",
   
   	"CONNID",
   
   	"FLDATE",
   
   	"PRICE",
   
   	"CURRENCY",
   
   	"PLANETYPE",
   
   	"SEATSMAX",
   
   	"SEATSOCC",
   
   	"PAYMENTSUM",
   
   	"SEATSMAX_B",
   
   	"SEATSOCC_B",
   
   	"SEATSMAX_F",
   
   	"SEATSOCC_F",
   
   	CONVERT_CURRENCY(
   
                "AMOUNT" => "PRICE", 
   
                "SOURCE_UNIT" => "CURRENCY", 
   
                "TARGET_UNIT" => 'USD', 
   
                "CONVERSION_TYPE" => 'M', 
   
                "REFERENCE_DATE" => CURRENT_DATE, 
   
                "CLIENT" => '002', 
   
                "SCHEMA" => 'ZST_TCUR', 
   
                "ERROR_HANDLING" => 'set_to_null', 
   
                "STEPS" => 'shift,convert,round', 
   
                "PRECISIONS_TABLE" => 'V_TCURX', 
   
                "CONFIGURATION_TABLE" => 'V_TCURV', 
   
                "PREFACTORS_TABLE" => 'V_TCURF', 
   
                "RATES_TABLE" => 'V_TCURR'
   
           ) AS "PRICE_CONVERTED",
   
   	'USD' AS "TARGET_CURRENCY"
   
   FROM "SFLIGHT"

   
    


3. Adjust basic parameters settings of the Currency Conversion Function:
   
   
   
   • AMOUNT: Column containing the values to be converted
   
   
   • SOURCE_UNIT: Source currency column
   
   
   • TARGET_UNIT: Target currency
   
   
   • REFERENCE_DATE: Reference date or dynamic variable CURRENT_DATE
   
   
   • CLIENT: ABAP Client
   
   
   • SCHEMA: Schema or Space name
   
   
   • CONFIGURATION_TABLE: The table identifier of the conversion type configuration (default TCURV)
   
   
   • PRECISIONS_TABLE: The table identifier of the precision table (default TCURX)
   
   
   • RATES_TABLE: The table identifier of the conversion rates table (default TCURR)
   
   
   • PREFACTORS_TABLE: The table identifier of the pre-factors table (default TCURF)
   
   
   
   


4. More information on the currency conversion can be found on the SAP HANA SQL Reference Guide.

 

Known Limitations

Sharing data models that contain currency conversion is currently restricted, and you will run into a security issue. The currency conversion must be applied on the same space where the currency tables reside.

Possible workaround is to persist the result of the view, where the currency conversion is applied and then share afterwards the persisted view.

Nonetheless, I would like to mention, that this limitation will be resolved with a new central Currency Conversion configurator in the space management (similar to the Time Dimension Generation). The delivery is targeted for Q1'2022.

 

With that I hope I could give you a preliminary idea on how Currency Conversion could be applied in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud.

Looking forward to posting soon the final Currency Conversion solution with a much better user experience and simpler configuration.

 

Links

In this tutorial you can find also a step-by-step explanation how to implement the currency conversion in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (Exercise 3):

https://github.com/SAP-samples/data-warehouse-cloud-modeling