Introduction to SAP BI/BW and HANA Tutorials

https://www.guru99.com/introduction-sap-bi.
html
SAP BI/BW
 1. Introduction SAP BI/BW

 2) SAP BI Architecture
 3) Infoobject Infoarea & Catalog
 4) How To Create an Infoarea?
 5) Create an InfoObject Catalog
 6) Create InfoObject with Chara
 7) Create InfoObjects With Key Fig
 8) What Is DSO? Why Use It?
 9) What Is Standard DSO
 10) What Is Write Optimized DSO
 11) What is Direct Update DSO
 13) What Is an Infocube?
 12) What is InfoSet?
 14) Flat File: Load Master Data
 15) Flat File: Load Transaction Data
 16) Load Master Data From ECC?
 17) ECC: Load Transaction Data

 18) Classical & Extended Schema
 19) Process Chains in SAP BI/BW
 20) Install BW Standard Content
 21) BEX Query Designer & Elem.
 22) Key & Characteris Settings
 23) SAP BI Interview Questions
SAP HANA Tutorials
 1) What is SAP HANA?

 2) SAP HANA Architecture
 3) SAP HANA Studio
 4) SAP HANA SQL
 5) Data Type & Identifiers
 6) Operator
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 7) SQL Function
 8) SQL Expression
 9) SQL Stored Procedure
 10) Create Sequence
 11) Create Trigger
 12) SQL DATA Profiling
 13) SQL Script
 14) Calculation View
 15) Data Provisioning
 16) SLT
 17) SAP DS (Data Services)
 18) Direct Extractor Connection
 19) Flat File Upload
 20) SAP HANA Modeling
 21) Join
 22) Attribute View
 23) Analytic View
 24) Analytic Privileges
 25) Information Composer
 26) Import and Export
 27) SAP HANA Security
 28) SAP HANA Reporting
 29) SAP HANA Interview Questions
Tutorial Architecture
Tutorial Download & Install
Tutorial SAP HANA SQL
Tutorial Data Type
Tutorial Operator
Tutorial SQL FUNCTIONS
Tutorial SQL EXPRESSIONS
Tutorial SQL Stored Procedure

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Tutorial Create Sequence
Tutorial Create Trigger
Tutorial SQL DATA Profiling
Tutorial SQL SCRIPT
Tutorial Calculation View
Tutorial DATA Provisioning & Replication
Tutorial SAP HANA SLT
Tutorial SAP DS (SAP DATA Services)
Tutorial Direct Extractor Connection (DXC)
Tutorial Flat file Upload
Tutorial Modelling
Tutorial Join
Tutorial Attribute View
Tutorial Analytic View
Tutorial Analytic Privileges
Tutorial Information Composer
Tutorial Import and Export
Tutorial Security
Tutorial Reporting
Tutorial Interview Questions
http://teachmehana.com/
http://teachmehana.com/sap-hana-definition/
SAP HANA
What is SAP HANA?

Row Store vs Column Store
SAP HANA Architecture
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HANA IMCE Architecture
Data Provisioning Techniques
Introduction to HANA Studio
Master data Vs Transaction Data
SAP HANA Star Schema
Creating a HANA Table – Graphical Method
Loading data from flat file to SAP HANA
Graphical Calculation View
SAP HANA Constant Filters
SAP HANA Variables
SAP HANA Input Parameters
Calculated Columns
Restricted Columns
Ranking Data in Calc View
Aggregating Data in Calc View
UNION node in Calc View
SAP HANA Web Development WB
Attribute View
Analytic View
Jump to SQL Topic
HANA SQL–How difficult is it?
SQL Data types
SQL Join Types in SAP
SQL Union Types in SAP
Creating a HANA Table–SQL Script Method
Creating a HANA Table–HDB Table Method
Creating a CDS Table–HDBDD Method
Inserting data in a Table–SQL Method
Inserting data in a Table–HDBTI Method
SELECT/TOP/DISTINCT Keyword
WHERE/LIKE/NOT Keyword
Calculated Fields & Alias
GROUP BY/IN/BETWEEN/ORDER BY
String Functions
NULL/NOT Keyword
UPDATE/DELETE/DROP/COUNT keywords
CASE/Nested SELECT statement
JOIN/UNION/UNION ALL Keyword
Scripted Calculatiion View
Static Filters in Calc View
Variables in Calc View
Input Parameters in Calc View
Understanding Calc Views
Table functions
Managing Input Parameter mappings
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Stored Procedures
Creating HANA XS JOBS
Scheduling HANA XS JOBS
http://teachmehana.com/sap-hana-table-function-input-parameters-3/
SAP HANA Table Function linking with Calculation

view Input Parameters
This tutorial is a continuation of the SAP HANA Table Function Part-1
tutorial and Part-2 tutorial. Please read them first if you have directly
landed on this page.
SAP HANA Table function (Contd..)

To understand how input parameters work with an SAP HANA table
function, we continue with the same example we used earlier. Go to the
repositories tab again and double click on our table function to edit it.
Let’s say the new requirement is to have an input parameter take the
value of a sales document from the user and this sales document number
should be used as a filter in our select statement.
To start off, as explained earlier, in Line 1 of the code, the round brackets
should enclose the input parameter(s) we require in the code. In this case,
we create one called p_sales_doc of datatype NVARCHAR and length 10 as
shown below.
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Also, modify the SELECT statement to include the WHERE condition as
shown below. Here we tell HANA that we need only values where the value
of sales document (VBELN field of table VBAK) matches the value specified
by the input parameter p_sales_doc.
Note: As explained earlier in the scripted calculation view tutorial, input
parameters are used in SQL codes with a colon (:) suffix.
Activate the table function again using the Activate button marked below.
Once this is done, switch back to the Systems tab and open the
Calculation view we created for this table function in the previous tutorial.
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1
Click on the projection tab to open the fields and other properties.
The calculation view cannot automatically detect an input parameter
coming in from the table function. Therefore, we need to create an input
parameter for this calculation view with the same data type and map the
input parameter from the table function to the one of this calculation view.
To start off, right click on the input parameters folder and select “New”.
In the window that opens up, then we provide the same name and data
type as the table function parameter.
Note: It is not mandatory to have the same name. It was just kept the
same here for consistency. Data types and lengths should ideally be
compatible and preferably same.
Press OK when done.
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We now see that the input parameter has been successfully created.
The next step is to establish a connection between the table function’s

input parameter and the calculation view’s input parameter.
To do this, right click on Input parameters and click on “Manage
Mappings”.
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On the left side, you would see the input parameter from the table
function and on the right hand side the calculation view input parameter
would be present as shown below.
Drag the one on the left and drop it on the right one to create a mapping.
Once you drag and drop it, the mapping would get established as
illustrated below.
Press Ok to confirm the mapping.
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Even after the mapping, you would see no difference in the view
properties though.
Activate this view now.
Execute a data preview. This would bring up the pop-up asking for a value
for the sales document number.
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A sales document number that exists in this table is entered as an
example. Press Ok.
As seen below, the filter was passed on to the logic of table function and it
got applied successfully. Only the row with the selected sales document
was sent to the output.
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This confirms that our table function and the input parameter mapping
was a success.
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Jump To BW/4HANA Topics
What is SAP BW?
Understanding SAP BW
Welcome one and all to the newest addition to the TeachMeHANA family –
SAPBW/4HANA. We are proudly, one of the first websites to write on this.
Let’s press that share button to show some support! Many of you might
already be into SAP BW but for the sake of everyone who’s new.. we’ll
start from the basics as always. If you have experience in SAP BW, please
share your valuable comments below the tutorial with more information
on these topics to help out the new students as well. Let’s crowd source
more info into this website. Writing on my own is getting boring
nowadays.. 🙂
Welcome everyone to the first SAP BW on HANA tutorial for this website.
Before we get to the tools and the system, let’s spend a few minutes
understanding what you are getting yourself into. What is SAP BW (or
Business Warehouse)? And if you are completely new to SAP,
please spend a few minutes on post – What is SAP ?
Data Warehouses and ETL processes
Well, SAP BW is SAP’s own Data Warehousing solution. What is data
warehousing? Excellent question again. When a company does business, it
stores the data of its transactions (transaction data) in some database or
the other. There might be one such database of multiple – one for each
region or division or one for each company they have acquired over the
period. The possibilities are endless. The point being that a company’s
transaction data may be spread across systems, stored in different
formats in each of them and may not be in the format that the
management needs to see in their reports. For a business to actively
understand it’s underlying problems, understand market trends, create
forecasts and make decisions, high quality reporting solutions have to be
created with the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the company
being measured across time frames. These KPIs and attributes that a
decision maker would want are usually scattered across the database and
more often than not, many of them need to be calculated from the
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existing data. Data warehouses cater to these needs and SAP BW is a
time tested solution for large and small business alike with standard
content also available for multiple industry segments to reduce
implementation time.
To solve this, the concept of data warehouses came into existence. Data
warehouses are applications on a separate database that take data from
these source systems, cleanse it, apply business logic and optimally store
it within themselves for faster access from reports. It is not something
SAP came up with, data warehouses have been around for a while. SAP’s
data warehouse has the name SAP BW. Oracle’s data warehousing
solutions are one of the biggest competitions SAP BW has had to deal with
over time.
I hope you now have a fair idea of what SAP BW actually means. Let’s
move to the next tutorial to start our road to BW running on the HANA
database.
What is SAP BW on HANA?
What is SAP BW on HANA?

The birth/rebirth of SAP BW on HANA
– Why did the world need it?
Before SAP BW on HANA arrived, one of the biggest
downfalls of SAP BW was that there were too many
layers of redundant data from pre-cleansing, cleansing
and multiple layers of transforming data. All this inherent
latency (time taken for data to reach from source to
reporting layer) made it a bulky truck which always got
the job done but was never meant for a street race.
Then came SAP HANA – SAP’s new revolutionary
database and then the idea to take the BW application off
the traditional databases and put it on top of HANA. This
also allowed a serious rethought and redesign of the way
BW development was done. This gave birth to BW on
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HANA – initially introduced on BW 7.3. As BW on HANA
evolved, then came along version 7.4 and then 7.5 as the
most stable known version of as of this writing which is
leaps and bounds beyond in terms of capability from its
initial predecessor.
SAP BW on HANA 7.3 tried to provide for faster load

times, reduced layers and tried to optimize existing data
models. It did provide improvements without a doubt but
there were too many issues which couldn’t be fixed just
by sticking a tape on it. Anyways, it was a step in the
right direction. SAP BW on HANA 7.4 tried to fix these
problems by reducing complexities. SAP realized that
there were far too many development objects in SAP BW
and these objects contributed heavily to the web of
complexity that was dragging the performance down with
it. SAP BW on HANA 7.4 reduced the number of these
objects among many other features. The data modeling
also now started moving out of a traditional SAP GUI to
the SAP HANA Studio environment which you would know
of if you have been through my HANA tutorial section
already. BW on HANA 7.5 further develops what BW on
HANA 7.4 started and provided a much stable version of
BW. With BW on HANA 7.5, more development has
shifted to the HANA studio/eclipse environment among
many other features leading to leaner and more efficient
architecture. SAP BW on HANA 7.5 also provided the
base for development of the latest installment of SAP BW
named SAP BW/4HANA. The SAP BW/4HANA looks and
feels a lot like the 7.5 version of BW on HANA but there
are good differences that make BW/4HANA more
efficient.
At this point, I would like to set the expectations from

this training. This would be a BW/4HANA tutorial and
BW/4HANA only related tutorial. We would not be
discussing all the features of traditional BW or BW on
HANA versions. I can’t emphasize this enough – Only the
latest version of BW – BW/4HANA is the star of this
training.
Before moving further into the tutorial, I would request
you to finish only the some prerequisite courses for SAP
BW on HANA from the other sections of this website.
These are listed as below but after reading the below
posts please come back to this post and press the next tutorial
button on this post to proceed with the BW tutorials.
1. What is SAP HANA?
2. Master data Vs Transaction Data
3. SAP HANA Star Schema
4. SQL Join Types in SAP
5. SQL Union Types in SAP
6. SAP HANA Studio
7. SAP HANA Calculation Views
I am a pretty nice guy but this may sound rude – DO
NOT go to the next page until you finish off these 7 pre-
requisite tutorials. I absolutely forbid you. It would be even
better if you could go finish off the SAP HANA section
(you can avoid the SQL section for now) before
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proceeding but if you don’t feel like it, those 7 mentioned
above are absolute necessities at least.
Stay tuned for my next posts on SAP BW and please do
share these documents across social media by using the
share buttons below.
What is SAP BW/4HANA?
What is SAP BW/4HANA?

Finally, we start with the actual topic – SAP BW/4HANA.
If you have directly landed on this page, I request you to
go to our previous tutorial explaining the journey from SAP
BW to BW on HANA to the current SAP BW/4HANA
version that we have. This tutorial also lists the pre-
requisites for starting this tutorial. So please check them
out before you continue further.
Since SAP HANA came to life with native HANA based
data modeling, SAP BW modelers around the world have
been concerned about their job security. How many times
has someone asked you if BW will be replaced by HANA?
I’ve personally heard that hundreds of times. The answer
to this is of course – No, or at least not in the near
future. SAP BW brings in too much to the table to be just
shoved away. It had years of development behind the BI
content- which is a set of template data models which
you can just install and start customizing. For example, if
you wanted a data flow for general ledger, find the BI
content and install it and then customize it as per your
business logic. It saved a lot of time in development. Plus
one of the major reasons SAP BW can’t die right now is
because then what would you do with so many customers
who spent years building their data warehouse? It would
take millions of dollars, years of effort and a lot of
consultants pulling their hair out to debug the existing
codes and decode this logic and rebuild in SAP HANA
native models like calculation views. Anyone who has
experience in coding would agree with me that
developing something from scratch is way easier than
trying to understand someone else’s code and rebuilding
it while also understanding the dependencies. Debugging
an old code written by someone else is the time where a
developer questions his/her life choices.
Difference between BW/4HANA and BW
on HANA
This is also a fun question I’ve started getting recently.
Before we get into the details, let’s address this question.
Starting with BW on HANA 7.3 until BW on HANA 7.5,
SAP created new types of data modeling objects and also
kept optimizing the old objects as well. For example,
there is a new data model called the advanced DSO
(commonly called the aDSO) which is well optimized to
work on SAP HANA. But at the same time, there were
objects from older developments like InfoCubes and
DSOs (different from aDSO). SAP kept optimizing them
so that they performed better with HANA but it was like
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dragging along a bunch of old stuff that must be thrown
out eventually.
You can also understand this with another example of the
iPhone/Android updates. Whenever these operating
systems get updated, they send updates to the new
phones as well as some old ones. Every time a new
update gets released, there will be a set of phones that
won’t get the updates anymore because they have
become too old to be supported.
SAP also now wants to focus on building a business

warehouse with only the new objects that are optimized
for SAP HANA and in line for their vision of a leaner
architecture in data modeling.
So, the primary difference between BW on HANA and
BW/4HANA is that BW/4HANA no longer supports those
old objects like InfoCubes and DSOs. If a customer
wishes to move to BW/4HANA, they need to convert all
such legacy objects into newer BW/4HANA objects. SAP
provides programs that can do this conversion but there
will be some pre-migration effort to clean up everything
that is no longer supported before moving to BW/4HANA.
Another difference here is that BW/4HANA data modeling
will now take place inside the SAP HANA studio tool. We
move away from the traditional SAP GUI based modeling
although there are small tasks still done there. This shift
started from SAP BW on HANA 7.4 and with 7.5 and now
BW/4HANA, we now are almost completely shifted bases
into this eclipse environment. In the future, we would see
a move into a web based development environment just
like SAP HANA’s Web IDE that has come in for native
HANA modeling.
On the downside, BW/4HANA still doesn’t support
planning applications so that’s one reason customers
would want to wait for future releases/updates to
migrate.
Also, from past experience, we’ve seen that jumping on
to new product isn’t a great idea always as it might have
a lot of bugs and missing features. It will be wiser to wait
for the product to stabilize before jumping on the
bandwagon.
There are many more differences but then we would
learn them as the course progresses. The ones I outlined
are the major differences – at least according to me.
BW Perspective for BW4/HANA

BW Perspective in the HANA Studio
Welcome, all to the next BW4/HANA tutorial. In this one, we finally get to
the tool used to develop BW4/HANA artifacts. Here, we use the SAP HANA
Studio in BW Perspective. This is the same tool we use to develop native
HANA information views like Calculation views. It would be good if you
pre-read the SAP HANA Studio overview tutorial before proceeding further on
this one. It would help you navigate this tool with further ease.
Another pre-requisite to using the BW Perspective is having the BW
system set up in the SAP GUI as well. If you are unaware of how to do
that read our SAP GUI tutorial before proceeding.
To start, open the SAP HANA Studio on your system. It doesn’t matter if
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the screen looks different from what you see below.
The SAP HANA Studio consists of different “Perspectives”. Each

perspective serves its own purpose. The BW Perspective allows you to use
the SAP HANA Studio instead of SAP GUI for development (although a lot
of the operations call the GUI screens within itself..but let’s not get lost in
that..more on that later).
Navigate as shown below
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Select the BW modeling to choose the BW perspective
This opens up the BW perspective which in turn should also provide the
tabs you see below.
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The first one time activity here is to create a workspace which is basically
a temporary workspace saved on your PC where your draft work is saved.
Right-click anywhere in the blank area and navigate as below to create a

new project
Since we are in the BW4HANA section of this tutorial, I assume all of you
want to learn BW .. so we make the obvious choice to create a BW Project.
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Remember when I said at the beginning of this tutorial.. that SAP GUI
setup was a pre-requisite to using the BW Perspective? I wasn’t joking
around.. Since I did set up the connections on SAP GUI, all the systems
available there are reflected here below. Select the BW4HANA system you
wish to connect to. In this example, we’ll connect to B4H.
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Press Next.
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Press Next again to reach the below screen. Here, you must enter the
client number, Username, and password given to you by your project ..or
trainer.
Once entered press Finish.
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You get the fancy processing logs..and eventually, it logs on..
Give the project a name.. or if you are as lazy as I am, leave it as it is ..

Anyways, we weren’t coming up with a better name than that.
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Once you press finish.. there’s no going back. You have now connected to
BW4HANA and have chosen to enter the fun (sarcasm intended) life of a
BW developer. I couldn’t have been any more happy for you..
https://www.stechies.com/hana/
 What is SAP HANA
SAP HANA stands for (High-Performance Analytic

Appliance) is an In-Memory Database.
It is a blend of both hardware and software due to which it

incorporates various components such as
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 SAP SLT or System Landscape Transformation
 SAP HANA Database
 SAP HANA Direct Extractor connection
 Replication server
 Sybase replication technology
SAP HANA Database is classified into two types such as:
 Row Store
 Column Store
SAP HANA edition is classified into three types such as:
 SAP HANA Platform Edition

 SAP HANA Enterprise Edition
 SAP HANA Extended Edition
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Advantages of SAP HANA:
 With the help of Real-Time Data Provisioning and Real-
time Reporting, decisions can be taken in no time.
 Due to the presence of In-Memory Technology, SAP
HANA delivers high speeds processing on massive data
and allows the user to discover and analyze all
transactional and analytical data.
 SAP HANA reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) as
it requires fewer testing, hardware, and maintenance
and it also reduces Total IT cost of a company.
 By leveraging innovative solutions, SAP HANA makes
new business processes and business models.
 Data can be collected from several applications and data
sources without disturbing the on-going business
transactions.
 It helps in simplification of prevailing models, of
modeling and re-modeling.
 SAP HANA can visit several data source as well as the
Un-Structured and Structured data from Non-SAP or
SAP data source.
 SAP HANA decreases the complication of data
management and data manipulation.
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 SAP HANA helps in increasing the revenue of an
organization as it makes it so easy to identify the
profitable sales opportunities through the entire sales
related data accurately.
The four components of SAP HANA:
SAP HANA DB- Database Technology

SAP HANA Appliance
SAP HANA Application Cloud-based infrastructure
SAP HANA Studio- A compilation of tools for modelling SAP
applications
 SAP HANA Training Tutorials for Beginners
SAP HANA Job Roles

As a platform, SAP HANA can be categorized into three major
areas for working on, namely:
Administrator: An administrator is primarily responsible for
Database Maintenance, User management, SAP HANA
Database Installation & Configuration, Monitoring, Backup &
Restore.
 Modeler: A modeler should have a fair clue regarding

the various data provisioning techniques available for
bringing data from different sources to SAP HANA, Data
security, building up the information models (modeling
objects) based on business requirements, Performance
tuning, Different Reporting tools which connects to SAP
HANA and much more.
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 Application Developer: An application developer will
be expected to work on programming languages such as
JQuery, Java Script, HTML and other languages for
building web applications which work on SAP HANA
Database platform.
SAP HANA Course Content:
 Introduction to SAP HANA, SAP in memory strategy

 SAP HANA Studio, administration view, navigation view
 Architecture overview, data modeling, HANA reporting, SAP
HANA DB
 Replication process, Replication server
 User management and authorization
 Analytics view, attribute view
 SAP HANA In-Memory Database

 SAP HANA Database Architecture
The SAP HANA database is built on C++ and operates on

SUSE Linux Enterprises Server. The aim of the SAP HANA
database is to offer a main-memory centric data management
platform to support SQL. To multiple machines, SAP HANA
Database is distributed.
Know about SAP HANA architecture:

SAP HANA database comprises of multiple servers namely
 Index server
 Name Server
 Statistic Server
 Preprocessor Server
 XS Engine
Among all these index server is the most significant

component of the entire server.
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Index Server: It is the key SAP HANA database component
and comprises actual data stores and the engine for data
processing. In situation of authentic sessions and connections
while SQL or MDX get started against the SAP HANA system,
an index server maintains these commands and takes a series
of actions in order to achieve a particular end.
Name Server: It comprises of thorough information

regarding the system landscape. The name server comprises
of information about each running component and location of
data on the server in distributed server. In addition, the name
server comprises of information about the server on which
data exists.
Statistic Server: This server assists in collecting the data for

the system monitor and aids in understanding the SAP HANA
system’s health. The duty of this server is to collect the data
related to source distribution/consumption, status, and
performance of the SAP HANA system. This server monitors
the status of numerous alert monitors and the information
gathered by statistics server.
This server also offers a history of measurement data for

additional analysis.
Preprocessor Server: For analyzing text and extracting data

from a text when the search function is used, Preprocessor
Server is used. The abilities of preprocessor server are
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exploited by index server during the analysis of the text data
and probing.
XS Engine: This is found in the XS Server. This permits

external application and developers to utilize SAP HANA
database through the XS Engine client. To transmit data
through XS engine for HTTP server, the external client
application may use HTTP.
 SAP HANA Studio Guide
SAP HANA Studio is a tool based on Eclipse which is used for

developing artifacts in a HANA server. For HANA
system, SAP HANA studio is the chief development
environment as well as the key administration tool.
The key features of SAP HANA studio are listed

below
 To enter native or distant HANA system, this client tool is

used.
 The SAP HANA studio offers a setting for HANA
Administration, HANA Information Modeling and Data
Provisioning in HANA database.
 The SAP HANA studio allows the users to generate and
achieve user authorizations, to manage the SAP HANA
database, to generate new or alter current models of data
etc.
The Perspectives of SAP HANA Studio:
The Perspective in HANA Studio can be selected by clicking on

HANA Studio. After clicking on HANA Studio,
the ‘Window’ option is selected. Then choose the
option, ‘Open Perspective’ and then select ‘Other’.
 SAP HANA Azure Architecture

 SAP HANA Modeling Guide
 SAP HANA Modeling Scenarios
 Attribute: Attribute is the Non-Measureable and

descriptive data. Vendor ID, Vendor Name, City, etc.
are some of the examples of attribute.
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 Measure: Measure is the type of data that is calculated
and quantifiable. Revenue, Quantity Sold and Counters
are some of the examples of measure. From analytic
and calculation view, the measure is derived. In
Attribute view, the measure cannot be created.
Types of Attribute
Three types of attributes are supported by SAP HANA:
 Simple Attribute: From data foundation, simple

attribute is derived.
 Calculated Attribute: From one or more existing
attributes and constants, calculated attribute is derived.
Some of the examples include Arithmetic calculation or
from the first and last name, derive the full name.
 Local Attribute: For customizing the behavior of
attribute, local attribute is used inside modelling views
(analytic View / calculation view). Thus, it cannot be
accessed from outside of Modelling view and is local
to Modelling view.
Types of Measure
Four types of measures are supported by SAP HANA
 Simple Measure: From data foundation, simple

measure is derived.
 Calculated Measure: From one or more exiting
measure, constants and function, calculated measure is
derived. E.g. Arithmetic calculation.
 Restricted Measure: To filter value based on user-
defined rules for attribute values, restricted measure is
used.
 Counter: Unique number for attributes Columns
(Analytic View/ Calculation View) are displayed by this
Special type of the column. To count the one or more
attributes columns, counter is used.
To Join SAP HANA tables, following types of Join method are

used-
 INNER JOIN
 LEFT OUTER JOIN
 RIGHT OUTER JOIN
 FULL OUTER JOIN
 REFERENTIAL JOIN
 TEXT JOIN
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SAP HANA Modeling View Processing:
3 types of engines are used based on the views

required by the model.
 Join Engine: For Attribute Views, this is used.

 OLAP Engine: For Analytic Views (without calculated
columns), this is used.
 Calculation Engine: For Analytic views with calculated
attributes, Calculation views, this is used.
 Create Schema in HANA

 Rename HANA Schema
 SAP HANA Sidecar
 SAP HANA Calculation View
 SAP HANA Hints
 SAP HANA Excel Integration
 SAP HANA vs S/4HANA
On HANA the route to Suite to digest is pretty simple. From your

current database to HANA it should be upgraded to ECC6
Enhancement Package 7 and then a database migration should
be performed. Without too much business involvement this
technical exercise can be achieved (regression testing is a must).
A new product is SAP S/4HANA. Around the core ECC

solution it is based. A number of differences are there,
however:
Simplification of the data has been done. Within certain

processes into a single table by replacing the core tables this
can be achieved.
Due to the ‘principle of one’, some traditional functionality

is no longer available after the new functionality has been
released.
With over 3000 CDS views currently available embedded

reporting has been released. Within the S/4HANA
environment, SAP BW and SAP BPC can be embedded.
Within the new product S/4HANA enables certain scenarios to
be performed– not all however; it will not replace BW or BPC.
33
Either by a system conversion from an ECC solution (including
Suite on HANA), or a new install the route to S/4HANA is
achieved. From ECC6 to S/4HANA there is no upgrade path.
With the reason being to enable the new simplified data
model a system conversion needs to take place. In order to
replace it from your existing system you need to be conscious
on the lost functionality as part of the move to S4/HANA.
 SAP HANA Security Overview
In a single HANA system, SAP HANA backs multiple databases and

therefore, it is identified as multitenant database containers. Over
one multitenant database containers can be present in the HANA
system. By a single system ID (SID), the SAP HANA system that is
fitted in this setting is recognized. By a SID and database name,
the database containers in HANA system are recognized. The SAP
HANA client, recognized as SAP HANA Studio, links to definite
databases.
Multitenant HANA Database additional features
 Database Isolation − Via operating system mechanism, it

includes stopping cross tenant attacks.
 Configuration Change blacklist – It stops definite system
properties from getting altered by tenant database
administrators,
 Restricted Features – It disables definite database features
that offer straight entree to file system, other resources or
the network.
Standard Users
Users who can produce objects in their own Schemas and
have read access in system Information models are the
standard users. Every standard user has the access to read
the information which is offered by PUBLIC role.
Restricted Users
Users who have access to HANA system with some
applications but do not have SQL privileges on HANA
System are the restricted users.
When comparing the restricted users with Standard users,

one can find that
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 Restricted users do not have the authority to produce
objects in HANA database or on their own Schemas.
 Unlike standard users restricted users do not have
generic Public role added to profile due to which they do
not have access to check any information in database.
 Only by using HTTP/HTTPS restricted users can link to
HANA database.
 SAP HANA Authentication

 SAP HANA Compression Techniques
 SAP HANA SQL Operators
 SAP HANA Data Provisioning
What is Data Provisioning?

Data provisioning is the way to get DATA from SAP sources
such as SAP ERP, SAP BW or non-SAP source such as
Microsoft Excel to the HANA Database.
It is a process of creating, preparing, and enabling a network

in order to provide data to its user through HANA Database.
These two types of Provisioning tool come with further

classifications such as
SAP HANA Built-In Provisioning Tool

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i. Flat File
ii. Remote data
iii. Smart Data Streaming
iv. Smart Data Access (SDA)
v. Enterprise Information Management (EIM)
External tool supported by SAP HANA

i. Sybase Replication Server
ii. SAP Landscape Transformation
iii. SAP Direct Extractor Connection
iv. SAP Business Objects Data Services
Process of SAP HANA Data Provisioning

There is a 3 step process involved performing the
transfer of data from source to SAP HANA Database
know as ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load)
1) Extract – it is the first phase pf ETL where the data is

extracted from the different source system.
2) Transform – In this second phase of ETL, a series of

functions are defined for the data extracted from the source
system in order to transfer the data into the target system.
3) Load – In this last phase pe ETL the data gets loaded in

the target system.
SAP HANA Data Provisioning Methods

There is various data provisioning method in order to move
the data from source to SAP HANA Database:
 Uploading Data from Files

 SAP DATA Services
 SAP LT Replication
 SAP Direct Extractor Connection(DXC).
Uploading Data from Files

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From a file, without ETL tools (SLT, BODS, and DXC) SAP
HANA support uploading data. HANA Studio Revision 28
(SPS04) new feature is this.
The following type of files is supported by SAP HANA

which will be available on client system as below –
 .CSV (Comma Separated value files)

 .XLS
 .XLSX
The user needs to create control file (.CTL file) prior to this
option. To exist in SAP HANA and to upload data in SAP
HANA Database, the table is needed. records will be
appended at the end of the table if the table exists but if the
table is absent then table need to be created.
SAP DATA Services
 SAP Data Services which is also called as SAP Business

Object data services is a single enterprise level ETL tool
 SAP Data Service tool allow us to load data from any
source to any target either in real-time or in a batch
process.
 It is a one the certified ETL tool from SAP to perform
Batch loading into SAP HANA.
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SAP LT Replication
 LT Replication Server leverages proven System
Landscape Optimization Technologies (SLO).
 System Landscape Optimization Technologies is used to
consolidate and unite the system landscape.
 It a key offering foster SAP's Application Management
Lifecycle.
SAP Direct Extractor Connection(DXC)

 SAP HANA Direct Extractor Connection(DXC) is an
additional data acquisition technique which has been
added to the existing SAP HANA data
acquisition techniques.
 DXC is a batch-acquisition technique which is considered
as a for of ETL
 DXC provides out-of-box foundational data models to
SAP HANA which are based on SAP Business
Suite Entities.
 SAP Business Content DataSouce are available to deliver
data directly to SAP HANA.
 SAP HANA Persistence layer

 SAP HANA Replication Modes
 SAP HANA DXC
What is DXC (Direct Extractor Connection) ?
Direct Extractor Connection (DXC) is a HANA Data

Provisioning tool which utilizes the existing BW Datasource.
SAP HANA DXC can execute after a time interval as it is batch
driven data replication technique.
Existing ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) method of SAP

Business Suite Application via an HTTPS connection are
used by SAP HANA DXC.
For SAP Business Warehouse in SAP Business suite

application content, Data Source Extractors have been
available for data modeling and data acquisition.
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Variation of Data Source Extractor
There is three variation in Data Source Extractor:
1. Default Architecture: It uses the embedded BW system

within the SAP Business System
2. Sidecar variation: It uses the standalone Bw system as
the DXC system.
3. BW on HANA: In this option, if we have a non-BW
schema in the same HANA instance where data must be
loaded where we can consider the BW on HANA as DXC
system.
Advantage of Direct Extractor

Connection
 No additional server or application in the system
landscape is required.
 The complexity of data Modelling in SAP HANA is
reduced, as it sends the data to SAP HANA after
applying all business extractor logic in the source
system.
 SAP HANA Implementation timelines are done in a

speedy way.
 Semantic-rich extracted from SAP Business site and are
provided to SAP HANA.
Limitation of Direct Extractor

Connection
 DXC does not provide real-time data replication option.
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 DXC cannot be considered for data which require
complex transformation
 Pre-define ETL method should be there in the Data
Source, if not then it should be defined.
 A Business Suite System on Net Weaver 7.0 or higher
(e.g. ECC) equal or below SP level is required in SAP
DXC: Release 700 SAPKW70021 (SP stack 19, from Nov
2008).
 In Data Source a procedure with a key field defined
must exist.
 SAP HANA License Types

 SAP HANA Audit
 SAP HANA Data Archiving vs Data Aging
 SAP HANA Interview Questions
 SAP HANA Certification Cost in India
 GST S/4HANA Master Data Configuration
https://data-flair.training/blogs/sap-hana-interview-questions/
 SAP HANA – Introduction

 SAP HANA – Features
 SAP HANA – Pros and Cons
 SAP HANA – Architecture
 SAP HANA – Use Cases
 SAP HANA – Installation
 SAP HANA – Studio
SAP HANA Studio Overview – Installation,

Features, Environment
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · UPDATED · JANUARY 24, 2019
In this SAP HANA Studio Overview, we are going to learn about
a software called SAP HANA Studio. In our effort to learn SAP
HANA technology in its fullness, learning the fundamentals and
how to work on SAP HANA Studio is an important thing. Here,
we will discuss features, supported platforms, environment and
Installation process.
1. What is SAP HANA Studio?

SAP HANA Studio is a tool which acts as an interface for SAP
HANA users from where they can administer data, develop
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applications and design data models. Here, you can manage
databases, create as well as administer SAP HANA user
authorizations, or you can create/modify data models.
SAP HANA Studio is an Eclipse plug-in and so, is known as

an Eclipse-based tool. It serves two primary purposes, i.e. it is a
central development environment known as an Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) and is also an administration
tool for both remote and local HANA systems. Also, it is a client
tool which users on the client’s end user to manipulate and
manage data and applications deployed both locally or in a
remote set up.
Do you know how SAP HANA is beneficial for your industry?
2. Supported Platforms for SAP

HANA Studio
The SAP HANA Studio is supported by various kinds of
platforms as given below.
 Microsoft Windows x32 and x64 versions of – Windows

XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10.
 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 11 (x86 64-bit version).
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5
 Mac OS 10.9 or higher
Also, it can run on Eclipse platform 3.6.
3. Features of SAP HANA

Studio
While you install or update SAP HANA Studio, you get to select
a set of features specific to the purpose of your use of SAP
HANA Studio. Here, the repository is divided into two parts i.e.
a core features part and additional features of SAP
HANA Studio. The features are listed below and the additional
features can be downloaded from the SAP Download Center,
where all the Studio updates are available.
There are three core features available to select from,
i. SAP HANA Studio Administration

This feature has tools for several administrative tasks. It also
provides troubleshooting tools like the catalogue browser,
tracing, and SQL Console etc.
ii. SAP HANA Studio Database Development
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It includes tools for database and content development. The
tools are DataMarts, ABAP etc.
iii. SAP HANA Studio Application Development

This includes SAP HANA native application development tools
like XS and UI5 tools.
4. SAP HANA Studio

Environments
Once you select the required features or toolset, there is an
environment created in software for you to work in. Based on
the features and perspective that you select, there can be
several environments created as named below.
 Administration
 Information modeling
 Data provisioning
 SAP HANA Database Administration
5. SAP HANA Studio

Installation Process
You can download and install SAP HANA Studio from the SAP
Download Center inside the SAP HANA add-ons. It contains
different perspectives which you can choose to work on. Some
commonly used perspectives are,
 SAP HANA Administration Console
 SAP HANA Modeler
 Application Development
 Lifecycle Management
 SAP HANA Development
 ABAP
 BW Modeling
I. Download & Installation Process

If we select SAP HANA Administration Console, it appears as
shown below.
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Step. 1 To Install Studio
You can change to another perspective from the “Open
Perspective” icon given at the top right.
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We have changed the perspective from SAP HANA Administrative
Console to SAP HANA Modeler.
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Also, a list of perspectives opens from the icon which you can
choose the perspective of your choice. Each perspective is used
for a specific purpose i.e. to perform a certain operation on the
data and the database.
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Another way to access the list of existing perspectives is, open
the tab Window, then select Perspective, then click on Open
Perspective, and then go to Other… to access the entire list of
available perspectives.

On the top right corner of a perspective window, you get icons
for quick access of some perspectives such as SAP HANA
Administration Console, SAP HANA Modeler, ABAP, and BW
Modeler (from left to right).

If you wish to reset the currently selected perspective to default,
then do as shown in the image.
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To add a database system in SAP HANA Studio right-click on
anywhere on the section is given at the left. Select Add System.
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Then enter the system details like hostname, instance number,
and description.
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Next, add the connection credentials like username and
password.
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The system gets added and all the details and sub-folders are
added in the section. You can log in and off the system by right-
clicking on the system’s name. Also, you can expand all the
options for security, provisioning, content, catalogue etc., and
drill down the folders to access and manage data.
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6. Conclusion
This was all about to know about SAP HANA Studio to start
working on it. Install it with the required features and create an
environment of your choice. Add multiple systems and start its
manipulation and administration. So, stay with us as we
explore this wonderful tool.
 SAP HANA – Studio Admin Console
SAP HANA Studio

Administration Console –
Add Schema, Table, User
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · UPDATED · JANUARY 24, 2019
This lesson is about the Administration Console or view in SAP
HANA Studio. Here, we will learn about the Administration
Console perspective found in the SAP HANA Studio. Also, we
will learn how to add new systems, create a schema, adding
new data tables in the schema, loading data in those tables and
adding new users to access specific data tables.
So, are you excited to learn SAP HANA Administration
Console?
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Introduction to SAP HANA Studio Administration Console
1. SAP HANA Studio

Administration Console/ View
Administration Console view is one of the many perspectives
offered to work in the SAP HANA Studio. SAP HANA Studio is
an Eclipse-based tool which serves as both the central
application development environment as well as the core
administration and monitoring platform for the HANA system.
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You can select the Administration Console from the first
window that appears upon opening the SAP HANA Studio.
Do you know How to Download and Install Latest SAP HANA?
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SAP HANA Studio Administration Console
The SAP HANA Studio Administration Console opens.
However, in some cases, it opens directly if it is set as the
default browser.
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A lot of administrative tasks can be performed in the SAP
HANA Studio such as regulating (start/stop) services,
monitoring the system, user management and authorization,
backup and recovery, audit policy and security configuration,
license management, alerts and messages, memory
management etc. All of the mentioned activities can be
achieved from different tabs present in the administration
console such as,
 Overview (general management and monitoring)

 Landscape (checks if all the services are running)
 Alerts (set and view the details of the alerts)
 Performance (checks the performance of the system for the
activities taking place on the database)
 Volumes (details of the data volumes and logs.
 Configuration (contains the details of system configuration
files)
 System Information (to access system information files and
queries)
 Diagnosis Files (contains the system log files)
 Trace Configuration (contains the traces set up
information)
Recommended reading – Latest SAP HANA Use Cases
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2. How to add a system in SAP

HANA Studio Administration
Console?
In order to work on the administration console, we have to load
database systems into the Studio. This connects the client
(user) to the SAP HANA database. Let us learn how to add data
systems in the administration console.
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Step 1
On the Administration Console view, right-click on the left
panel and a drop-down menu appears. Select Add System..
from the menu.
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Step.1 To add a system in SAP HANA Studio Administration Console
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Have a Look – 7 Unique Reasons to Learn SAP HANA
Step 2
Enter the database specific credentials like Hostname, Instance
number, description of the database etc. Click on Next to
continue.

Step 3
To add the system and access the database in SAP HANA
Studio, you need to be an authenticated user with authorized
username/ID and password. Then click on Finish.
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Follow this link to know the best SAP HANA Books
Step 4
The system gets loaded and you can see the hierarchical view of
all the components and categories of the system on the panel.
For each system, there are four folders, Catalog, Content,
Provisioning, Security plus a Backup folder which are dedicated
to providing specific services.
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Step 5
You can find data tables by drilling down in the hierarchical
system folders.
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Also, you can perform several operations on the table as shown
in the menu in the screenshot below. You can view a table’s
content etc. from this menu.
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3. How to add a schema?

In the Catalog folder, you can find schemas of all the loaded
databases in the system. The schema contains folders which
organize a database properly. The folders are Column view,
Functions, Indexes, Procedures, Sequences, Tables etc. Let us
learn how to add a new database schema.
Step 1
Open the SQL Console from the icons given at the top after
clicking on the database system’s name in which you wish to
add a schema.
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Step.1 to add a schema
Step 2
Enter the statement in the SQL Console to create the new
schema. Name the schema as you like. Click on the green
Execute button.
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Step 3
A new schema with the name Live2 is added in the system.
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You can add a new table as well by right-clicking on the tables
folder.
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4. How to add tables in a schema?
You can add new tables within a schema through the SQL
Console. Enter the code which is a statement specifying all the
table details. Click on the green execute button and the table
will be added.
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Step.1 to add table a schema
Refresh the Tables folder in the schema and the newly created
table “Member” will appear in the list. You can add more tables
like this.
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Step.2 to add table a schema
5. How to add a user in a schema?

You can add a new user and give it access to the system by
going to the Security folder. Right-click on the Users option and
select New User.
Step.1 add a user in a schema

Enter the username and password for the new user.
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We can add a new user to the user’s list.
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Also, you can grant specific privileges to the new user i.e. they
are only allowed to perform certain actions in the system and
manipulate data.
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Hence, a new user with the name LIVE2USER is created having
access to limited tables and is granted distinct privileges.
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Now, for instance, if we try to delete a table, we will get an error
message for restricted user privilege as the user is only allowed
to read the table contents and not delete them.
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6. Log Off/Login in SAP HANA

Studio
You can log in and off a SAP HANA System by right-clicking on
the system’s name and selecting Log Off from the drop-down
menu. This will end all the existing connections from that
system.
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Log Off/Login in SAP HANA Studio
You can also log in to the system by doing the same and
selecting Log In from the drop-down menu.
Log Off/Login in SAP HANA Studio

So, this was all about SAP HANA Studio Administration
Console. Hope, you liked our explanation.
 SAP HANA – System Monitor
 SAP HANA – Azure

 SAP HANA – Modeling
SAP HANA Modeling –

Attributes, Measures,
Privileges, Modeling Objects
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · UPDATED · APRIL 11, 2019
This SAP HANA tutorial is dedicated to learning a very crucial
aspect and functionality known as SAP HANA Modeling. A lot
of SAP HANA’s applications are based on its capability of
creating data models and business logic through modeling
practices. In the sections to follow, we are going to learn about
attributes and measures of, privileges required and types of
modeling objects in SAP HANA.
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SAP HANA Modeling – Attributes, Measures, Privileges, Modeling Objects
1. What is SAP
HANA Modeling?
Modeling in SAP HANA showcases data from the databases as
a business logic or a model. We can create a data model or a
view with this business logic, which we can use in reporting and
analytical application such as SAP Lumira, Webi, SBEE, MS
Excel etc. We can make this kind of business models by
processing, integrating and transforming raw data from data
sources.
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That is, raw data taken from data sources is converted into
business utilizable data by applying business logic on it. SAP
HANA modeling is performed via the SAP HANA
Studio Modeler (which is an interface) and is applied directly
on the database layer (in-memory). Thus, readymade logics
from the database layer of SAP HANA are used on the
application layer without transforming data in multiple layers
or stages. This saves a lot of system’s time and resources, as raw
data is not needed to be transferred between the database and
application layer and data models, are created on the fly.
We can create modeling tools in the modeler, in which a data

will process from the database according to blueprint offered by
the data model. The models create on the HANA database level
utilize the processing potentials of multi-core CPUs and
parallel processing technologies, which we can execute by the
dedicated engines in SAP HANA.
We can create a SAP HANA data model in the

modeler perspective of the SAP HANA Studio. You can access
the database and tables as the schemas present under
the Catalog tab. Once you have created a business model having
a combination of information views in it, you can access the
entire list of views as a package in the Content tab present in the
system view section of the Studio. These SAP HANA
information model views reside under a package name as
categories based on view types. Also, within a view, the data
tables are structured differently as dimension tables and fact
tables (containing primary keys).
2. What are the attributes and

measures?
The business models created in SAP HANA Modeler use data in
a particular form. We can use content data within information
views, as attributes and measures.
Attributes, as the name suggests, is the descriptive or contextual

data which provides information on the data being used in
tables. Thus, the attributes are the characteristics of data such
as Country, Store, Sales ID, Customer Name, etc. Attributes are
the non-measurable data types and cannot be used in
calculations.
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Whereas, measures are the data entries, which are calculable as
well as measurable.
The views that use measures can be utilized for analytical
purposes. The data as a measure can be used as Sales Amount,
Product Quantity, Profit percentage, etc. There are different
types of attributes as discussed below.
a. Types of Attributes
There are three types of attributes in SAP HANA Modeling.
 Simple Attributes- We can derive it from the data source.

 Calculated Attributes – It is created from existing attributes at
the source. Such a full name created from two attributes,
i.e. first name and last name.
 Local Attributes – The local or private attributes are used in
modeling data in analytical or calculation views. Such
attributes can be taken as a private attribute in an analytical
view and can only be used in that view or model.
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SAP HANA Modeling – Attributes and Measures
Have a Look – 7 Unique Reasons to Learn Sap HANA
b. Types of measures
There are four types of measures in SAP HANA Modeling as
explained below.
 Simple Measure- We can take these measures as it is from the

source table.
 Calculated Measure- It is created from a combination of two
measures taken from OLAP cubes, arithmetic operators,
constants, functions, etc. For instance, a calculated measure
would be, Profit obtained from subtracting two measures
Sales price – Cost price.
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 Restricted Measure- These are the filtered measure values
based on a condition put on an attribute. For instance,
showing the measure values for only the gross revenue on a
particular car in USA (attribute).
 Counter- It is a type of column within an analytical or
calculation view, which shows the count or number of
attribute columns.
3. Types of Modeling Objects

Following are the 4 types of SAP HANA Modeling Objects, let’s
discuss them one by one:
 Attribute View
 Analytic View
 Calculation View
 Decision Table
i. Attribute View
SAP HANA Attribute view uses attributes, or the non-
measurable, non-quantifiable data to design views and models
according to the business logic. The data in attribute view also
call as ‘Master data’ and we can use it as a piece of reference
information in other views (analytic and calculation). The
tables in attribute view do not contain any facts or measure.
That is entries like sales amount, transaction amount, quantity
sold, profit incurred etc. We can analyze all these measures by
different characteristics such as year, quarter, month, vendors,
sales departments, product groups etc. These characteristics
also call as dimensions.
ii. Analytic View
In the SAP HANA analytic view, you can create star schemas,
having a central transaction or fact table and multiple
dimension tables linked to it via primary keys. We can join or
group the measures, which contain in only the central
transaction table with multiple dimension tables as per the
logic’s requirement. An analytic view is the next layer or level of
a model after the attribute view.
iii. Calculation View
SAP HANA Calculation view is a more complex model using
both attribute and analytic view elements in it to make a
complete business logic. Thus, it is the next level of SAP
HANA modeling for more advanced transformations and logic.
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In order to perform complex operations such as combining two
data sets into one, we need to use the calculation view. As we
inform about analytic view can measure only a transaction
table.
So, if we have transaction data from two tables, say, Sales and
Finance, and we wish to combine both in one data set, we can
only do it in the calculation view.
iv. Decision Table

We can use Decision table for business planning and decision-
making purposes. With the help of these tables, we can analyze
business scenarios and situations. It answers a lot of if and else
conditional queries, which helps in decision making by the
enterprise. We can use to carry out such an if-else situational
analysis using a graphical interface.
4. Privileges required for

Modeling
We can use these 3 types of SAP HANA Modeling privileges,
which are offering permission to a user for secure access
contents from the database.
 Object Privileges
 Packages Privileges
 Analytic Privileges
i. Object Privileges
Such privileges are the read/write privileges given for SQL used
to access a database. The object privileges are:
 ELECT privilege on _SYS_BI Schema.
 SELECT privilege on _SYS_BIC Schema.
 EXECUTE privilege on REPOSITORY_REST (SYS).
 SELECT privilege on Table Schema.
ii. Package Privileges

We can use package privileges to authorize an action to
perform on packages. It is necessary for the data modeling:
 REPO.MAINTAIN_NATIVE_PACKAGES (a privilege on
Root Package).
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 REPO.READ, REPO.EDIT_NATIVE_OBJECTS &
REPO.ACTIVATE_NATIVE_OBJECTS (on package used
for Content Objects).
iii. Analytic Privileges
We can use analytic privilege, to access the SAP HANA
information view. If you want to get full data access to use in all
the information view types, select the privilege
“_SYS_BI_CP_ALL”.
So, this was all about SAP HANA Modeling Tutorial. Hope, you
liked our explanation.
5. Summary of SAP HANA

Modeling
Thus, we can do SAP HANA modeling via the Data Modeler
view in SAP HANA Studio. As it is very important for you
to understand the basics of data modeling in SAP HANA in
order to further understand the working of systems like
information modelers and its different views in the SAP HANA
Studio.
 SAP HANA – Information Modeler
SAP HANA Information

Modeler – Types of
Information Views &
Engines
After learning the basics of modeling in SAP HANA, we will
move on to learn the concept of creating the business data
models in the SAP HANA Studio Modeler. In this SAP HANA
tutorial, we will learn about the information modeler and how
to use it to create information views. We will learn about each
information view in detail in the later tutorials.
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What is SAP HANA Information
Modeler?
Information Modeler of SAP HANA is a platform that lets you
design information views or models on top of SAP HANA
database using tables in it. Such models serve business logic
and operation. They are created directly on top of the HANA
database layer. The information modeler provides the interface
and tools to select attributes and measures from the database
tables. Thus, using the information modeler, a user can create
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multiple information views using the physical tables of
transactional data that stores in the databases of SAP HANA.
The information views are a logical representation of the data
which we can further publish or consume for analytical
purposes. Information modeling implements on the SAP HANA
Modeler perspective of SAP HANA Studio.
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Features of SAP HANA
Information Modeler
Here are some important features of information modeler.
1. Users can create information views only of the data in

columnar orientation or columnar tables in the database.
We read the columnar storage tables vertically, and data
gets compresses in it. This makes data processing
(read/write operation) much quicker than the traditional
row-based data tables.
2. A user can create multiple views using the data in the
databases. The database offers more than one type of
perspective on the data.
3. Analytical tools utilize information views like SAP Lumira
or web-based (HTML or Java) reporting tools.
4. We can also utilize information views in MS Excel
connected for reporting in SAP HANA.
5. The SAP HANA Information Modeler is the powerhouse of
SAP HANA as it allows users to use SAP HANA to its
complete potential.
Prerequisites for Creating

Information Views
Let us discuss some prerequisites to create information views
in SAP HANA Modeler.
 Only an authorized user can log in to the SAP HANA system

and work on the information modeler to create views. You
can either create a new user and schema or work with an
old one.
 We create information views from the content folder. A user
must have a user object privilege known as
“REPOSITORY_REST”. It is only if users have this privilege
can they access the content folder. Along with this, Package
Privilege is also necessary to modify objects.
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 A system privilege called “CREATE SCHEMA” is necessary
for users to create schemas. We create tables and views
within a schema.
 We also require Privileges to SYS_REPO.
Understand about the SAP HANA Studio Administration

Console
Information Modeling Views

There are three Information Modeling Views:
i. Attribute View
Attribute view uses attributes, or the non-measurable, non-
quantifiable data to design views and models according to the
business logic. Thus, the data used in attribute view is referred
to as ‘Master data’ as it is used as reference information in
other views (analytic and calculation).
The tables in attribute view do not contain any facts or

measure. Entries like quantity sold, sales amount, profit
incurred, transaction amount, etc. includes. We will analyze all
these measures by different characteristics such as year,
quarter, month, vendors, sales departments, product groups
etc. These characteristics are thus called dimensions which we
create in the attribute view.
ii. Analytic View

We can create star schemas, having a fact table or central
transaction and multiple dimension tables linked to it via
primary keys in the analytic view. The measures in only the
central transaction table which we can group or join with
multiple dimension tables as per the logic’s requirement. The
analytic view is the next layer or level of the model after the
attribute view.
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iii. Calculation View
Calculation view is a complex model which uses both attribute
and analytic view elements in it to create complete business
logic. Thus, it is the next level of modeling for more advanced
transformations and logic if we are executing complex
operations like combining two data sets. As we know, what
came as a limitation in analytic view is that measure that we
can only use from the transaction table. So, if we have
transaction data from two tables, such as Sales and Finance,
and we want to combine both in one data set, then we can only
perform it in the calculation view.
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Different Engines in SAP

HANA
SAP HANA hosts different types of processing engines that
process and execute the models created in SAP
HANA Information Modeler. Each engine performs a specific
function for a particular view in information modeling, which
we will discuss in detail here.
 Join Engine – Thejoin engine is used every time when an

attribute view is created or used, or a join condition is
applied in a native SQL command. If a calculation applies
in an attribute view, the join engine along with calculation
engine works to create that attribute view.
 OLAP Engine – The OLAP engine is for the creation of
analytical views. It is used only when attributes are used in
the analytical view and no calculation is done. If operations
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like calculations, counters, restricted measures are used
then other engines like a calculation engine is used along
with the OLAP engine.
Calculation Engine – The calculation engine is for

calculation along with using in other views like analytical and
attribute view whenever they apply calculation. The calculation
engine might also need other engines to work with it such as
OLAP and join engine.
 SAP HANA – Data Warehousing
Data Warehousing in SAP

HANA – Components,
Methods, Working &
Benefits
In the last tutorial, we learned about the SAP HANA
Information Modeler, now we will understand the concept of
data warehousing in SAP HANA. Data warehouses are not new
to the world of business intelligence, yet, they are an integral
part of SAP HANA’s architecture and conceptual framework.
Before moving on to details of Data Warehousing in SAP
HANA, we will learn the basic concept of data warehousing.
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What is Data Warehousing?
A simple answer to this is, Data warehousing is a technique or
system that collects transformed data from either or both
homogenous and heterogeneous data sources and transfers into a
single data store. It provides the data to the analytical tools. The
data warehouses are known to be the central repositories of a
business intelligence system.
Both real-time and historic (pre-existing) data can set the data
warehouses collected from either the enterprise’s operational
sources or an external data source. As we know, the traditional
databases keep transactional data which is one-dimensional
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data. And, it cannot be used for analytical and reporting
purposes, such databases are called OLTP (Online
Transactional Processing) database. But the data warehouses
are OLAP type databases which provide processed data for
analytical operations like data mining, OLAP analysis,
reporting etc.
A data warehouse typically contains metadata, raw data and
summary data which is used by analytic tools for reporting,
planning, and forecasting.
Next, in the SAP HANA Data Warehousing tutorial, we will

discuss the components of Data Warehouse Architecture.
Explore Unique Features of SAP HANA
Components of Data Warehouse

Architecture
A typical data warehousing architecture in SAP HANA consists
of four parts, data sources, staging zone for ETL processing, data
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types in warehouse and presentation or data access part.
 The data sources consist of the ERP system, CRM systems

or financial applications, flat files, operational systems.
 The staging area is where ETL (Extract, Transform and
Load) operations performs on the data taken from the
various data sources. Data from all kinds of data sources
are brought to a single staging area where ETL performs. In
ETL, data first extracts from the data source. Then cleans
and transforms as per user requirements and loads into the
data warehouses so that users can use it for analysis.
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 Data warehouses primarily contain metadata, which is, data
about data. Whereas, the summary data is the transformed
and processes data ready for analysis and reporting.
 Lastly, in the presentation layer, users can perform OLAP
operations on the data taken from the data warehouses and
use it for data mining, reporting, and analysis. Analytical
operations perform on such data to understand the
messages in raw transactional data. Understanding the data
helps in making informed business decisions.
Now, in SAP HANA Data Warehousing tutorial, we will further
move on to Designing Methods in Data Warehousing.
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Designing Methods in Data

Warehousing
Before using data in analytical tools, users need to design and
create data models. It will serve as a blueprint during the
execution process. Generally, the user performs three designing
methods in Data Warehousing:
 Inmon’s method: It is a top-down approach where the process

flow is such that data is taken from the data source,
undergoes ETL in the staging area, gets integrated into a
normalized (3NF) data model. From here, data loads into
the data warehouse. The users create data marts from the
data warehouses which creates before them.
 Kimball’s method: On the contrary, Kimball’s method follows
the bottom-up approach. The process flow of this model is
such that users take data from the operational or third-
party data sources, undergoes ETL, then models into a star
schema structure. After this, users create data marts in
which data that models as schemas get loads. Finally, these
data marts integrate to form a single enterprise data
warehouse.
 Hybrid method: The hybrid design uses both the techniques
together to design the data models. By doing so, a user gets
the speed of the bottom-up approach and integration
capabilities of the top-down approach.
Moving further in SAP HANA Data Warehousing tutorial, now,

we will learn the working of Data Warehousing in SAP HANA.
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Working of SAP HANA Data
Warehousing
The data warehousing works in a similar fashion in SAP HANA
as well. Transactional data from different SAP and non-SAP
data sources comes to SAP HANA data warehouse and clients
use them as per the data models and logics that the user
defines.
SAP HANA has a data warehouse solution known as SAP

BW/4HANA. This business warehousing solution runs on a
NetWeaver based ABAP platform. It is a model-based solution
where a user designs a data warehouse model and data flow on
the basis of which data retrieves from the original data source.
Users can create multi-dimensional data models in SAP
Business Warehouse. Users mainly use it for OLAP operations.
Must learn: How to use SAP HANA on Azure
Benefits of SAP HANA Data

Warehousing
Data warehousing solution in SAP HANA has several benefits:
 Instantly access real-time or historical data from SAP or

non-SAP data sources. It accesses data to carry out real-
time analysis and business insights either on-premise or
on-cloud.
 It offers high-volume and real-time data processing.
 Utilize the most of this tool by the virtue of a Big Data

warehouse. It allows complete capitalization on your data.
 You can develop the application according to your
requirements and use processed data from the data
warehouse. Conduct advanced analytics and integrate with
machine learning capabilities.
 SAP HANA – Attribute View
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SAP HANA Attribute View –
Create Attribute View in 9
Easy Steps
Moving ahead in understating modeling with SAP HANA
Information Modeler, let us start with learning about SAP
HANA Attribute View. In this lesson, we will first understand
the concept behind the attribute view, the process flow of
creating the attribute view and types of attribute view. Along
with the conceptual knowledge, we will also learn how to create
attribute view in SAP HANA Modeler.
Let us rewind a little and recall the significance of information
modeling in SAP HANA. Information models or Views are
logical frameworks or run-time objects which structures data
from one-dimensional databases into multi-dimensional data
structures for analytical purposes. The information views do
not store data physically in SAP HANA. The logic of a view is
stored in HANA and every time a reporting tool requests the
view, the system fetches the data according to the blueprint of
the view from the data source and presents it to the user.
Let’s start this tutorial by learning the definition of Attribute

View.
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What is SAP HANA Attribute
View?
The Attribute View in SAP HANA is a set of dimensions or
master data which can be joined with the fact table in an
Analytic View. An Attribute View can be created by taking data
from one or more data tables. The attribute shows relationships
between different attributes. The attributes can be Customers,
Region, Product, Period etc. In an Attribute View, joins can be
made between two master data tables, a text table, and a
master data table, etc.
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Types of Attribute View
 Standard Attribute Views: These views create by table fields
among different column store tables by using joins in SAP
HANA.
 Derived Attribute Views: It is an Attribute View created
using another existing Attribute View. It will open in read-
only mode, we cannot edit the derived Attribute view. The
only editable field in the created Attribute View is the
description. It will act as a reference to the base Attribute
view. Any modification to the base Attribute View will
reflect in the created Attribute View.
 Timed Attribute Views: Timed Attribute View stores the

time-dependent data. It is created against calendar tables –
M_FISCAL_CALENDAR (or) time tables –
M_TIME_DIMENSION, M_TIME_DIMENSION_YEAR,
M_TIME_DIMENSION_MONTH and
M_TIME_DIMENSION_WEEK. All these tables stores in
_SYS_BI schema.
Learn the concept of SAP HANA Modeling
Types of Joins
Tables from data sources join in different ways to create an
Attribute View in SAP HANA. The join types are:
 Referential Join
 Inner Join
 Left Outer Join
 Right Outer Join
 Text Join
Along with defining the join type of the Attribute View, the
cardinality of tables is also important to specify. The cardinality
can be 1:1, 1: N or N:1.
Explore Unique SAP HANA Features

Types of Hierarchies
Along with cardinality, and join type, dimensions in Attribute
View arranges in hierarchies. There are two types of hierarchies
in which attributes in a set gets arrange; Level hierarchy and
Parent-Child hierarchy.
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 The level hierarchy follows a rigid pattern of root and child
nodes where successive attributes can be accessed only in
the order they were created.
 A parent-child hierarchy is like a tree structure where there
are multiple sub-nodes of a root node which can further
extend to an undecided length. Thus, the tree-like structure
has unbalanced root nodes.
Creating an Attribute View in

SAP HANA
Before we learn how to create the Attribute View in SAP HANA
Modeler, let us understand the process flow in order to create a
complete and proper Attribute View.
 Enter details:Enter the technical name of the table and

mention the table type.
 Table selection: Select tables from the database schemas. You
can select tables from more than one schema. If you select
multiple tables, joins can create between them in this step.
 Field selection: Define the key column and select the output
column.
 Advanced operations: You can carry out transformation
processes on columns like creating calculated columns,
creating hierarchies, etc.
 Active and data preview: At last, you can activate the Attribute
View after saving the selections made by you and go to Data
Preview to preview the view created.
Learn the Installation process of SAP HANA
Attribute View Creation
Here are the steps to create an Attribute View in SAP HANA
Modeler:
Step 1: Open packages in the Content folder in the SAP HANA

Modeler.
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Step 2: Then, select an existing package or create a new package
from the Content node.
Right-click on the package name, go to New and select

Attribute View option.
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Step 3: Enter the technical name of the view carefully, as it
cannot be changed later. Also, you can enter a label name.
From the Copy From option, you can select an existing
Attribute View to act as a basis for the new one. Select a
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subtype and click on Finish.
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Step 4: Then, a view editor will open. The Semantics section
shows all the details that relate to the columns from the tables.
And, you can create the Attribute View in the Data foundation
section of SAP HANA Modeler.
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Must learn: SAP HANA Studio Overview
Step 5: After that, you can select the table from the schema in
two ways. Either by finding the table under the schema name in
Catalogue node and dragging-dropping the table on the editing
pane. You can add tables from more than one schema and
create joins between them.
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Or, by clicking on the green plus sign next to the Data
foundation section and searching the table by name.
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Step 6: Now, its time to select columns from the table to add into
the Attribute View in SAP HANA Modeler. You can add
columns into the view in two ways; either by right-clicking on
the column name and selecting Add to Output. The column
name will show in the right-most Output column and also on
the Data foundation at the left. Or, you can simply click on the
dot present in-front of the column name and it will turn orange
indicating that it is added.
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Step 7: If you wish to remove a column from the Output, right-
click on the column name and click on Remove.
Step 8: Next, you can go to the Semantics section from where

you have to select at least one column as the key attribute.
From the properties section in SAP HANA Modeler, you can see
the properties of the Attribute View. Also, you can set the Cache
Invalidation Period which sets the time of data loading from
the RAM to the cache. The data tables stay into the cache for
that defined period. And, create hierarchies from the Hierarchy
section.
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Step 9: Upon completing all the processes of adding columns
and tables to create the Attribute View, save and activate the
view by clicking on the green tick icon and green arrow given
on the panel on top. Then go to the Data preview icon.
Step 10: The data preview window contains three tabs; Analysis,
Distinct values, and Raw data. The raw data section shows the
data in tabular form.
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Lastly, you can do instant analysis using the data from the
columns in the Analysis tab. Just drag-and-drop the columns in
place of two axes and visualization create.
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 SAP HANA – Analytic View
SAP HANA Analytic View –

Create Analytic View in 15
Easy Steps
After learning about the Attribute View, let’s move on to
understanding the Analytic View. In this lesson, we will first
understand the concept behind the Analytic View in SAP
HANA. Then, we will discuss some characteristics of Analytic
View and at last, we will proceed to learn how to create an
Analytic View in SAP HANA.
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What is SAP HANA Analytic
View?
The Analytic Views in SAP HANA are one step ahead in terms
of complexity as compared to the Attribute View. The Analytic
Views are multi-dimensional views involving attributes and
measures arranged in a star schema fashion. In the center lies
the fact table, which is a table containing measure columns
from the transactional SAP HANA database.
Surrounding this fact table is a different set of attribute
tables/views. The attributes or dimensions attached to the fact
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table making an analytic view provides relevance to the
measures in the fact table. Thus, a user can examine data
(transactional data) from different perspectives. For instance,
you can have a fact table named Sales linked to four attribute
views or dimensions such as Region, Period, Customer, and
Product. That is, sales can be analyzed with respect to the
regions, customers, years, or products. The multi-dimensional
view created in the analytic view is also representative of OLAP
cubes.
Features of SAP HANA Analytic View
Some important features of the analytic view in SAP HANA are:
 Analytic views run start schema queries.

 The measures used in the fact table can be calculated
measures or restricted measure.
 You can perform complex calculations and apply
aggregation functions (sum, min, max, count etc.) on the
data used in the Analytic View.
Steps to Create an Analytic View

in SAP HANA
Here are the steps to create an Analytic View in SAP HANA
Modeler:
Step 1: Open SAP HANA Modeler perspective in the SAP HANA

Studio.
Step 2: Your pre-existing attribute views will be present within a

package in the Content node.
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Step 3: Right-click on the package for which you need to create
an Analytic View in SAP HANA which also contains the
attribute views. Click on New and select Analytic view from the
drop-down list.
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Step 4: Enter the technical name of the view and add a
description. You can set other properties as well, like view type,
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subtype etc. Click on Finish.
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Step 5: The design view for the analytic view in SAP HANA
Modeler
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opens.
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From the semantics section, you can access the columns, view
properties, hierarchies and variables or parameters.
Step 6: Now its time to add tables into the Data foundation. You
can add the data tables from the left panel either by dragging
and dropping or by searching the table’s name, Add Objects icon.
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Must learn: SAP HANA Installation Guide
Step 7: If you have more than one table selected, then you need
to define a join condition and cardinality. Here, in the image
shown below, we have selected join type as inner join and set
cardinality as 1: N in the join created two tables ORDERS and
ORDERDETAILS.
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Step 8: Next, we have to select columns for output from both
tables by clicking on the grey dots given in front of each column
of the table which will turn orange as a sign of being added into
the output.
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Step 9: Now we will go to the “start join” section to link all the
attributes views with the data foundation (fact table). As you
can see in the image below, we have selected three attribute
views in the Star Join section; AT_CUSTOMER,
AT_PRODUCTS and AT_TIME.
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Three separate tables for the three attribute views will get add
in the editor pane.
Learn to Use SAP HANA Studio Administration Console
Step 10: We will join the fact table with the attribute view
table with common columns, as shown in the image below. We
have joined the two tables (fact table and attribute view) with
the column CUSTOMERNUMBER.
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Also, we have defined the join type as an outer join.
Step 11: We will join the two other attribute tables with the fact
table in the same way. This will form a star schema like
structure of tables.
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Step 12: Next, we’ll define measures and dimensions for the
table from the Semantics section. You can tag the measure
fields as measures from clicking on the columns and then on
the yellow icon on the bar (indicated by the blue arrow). And
similarly, tag the dimensions by selecting the attribute icon
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shown by the red arrow.
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Step 13: After assigning the measures and dimensions, save the
Analytic View in SAP HANA Modeler by clicking on the green
tick and execute the view by clicking on the green arrow (shown
in the red box).
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Step 14: After validating and executing it, open the data preview
section. There, the raw data from all the tables of the Analytic
View in SAP HANA Modeler will get load.
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Learn the concept of SAP HANA Modeling
Step 15: From the Analysis section, you can quickly analyze the
data by selecting attributes and measures to create different
charts and graphs like a bar graph, Mekko chart, pie chart,
scatter chart etc.
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SAP HANA
 SAP HANA – Calculation View
SAP HANA Calculation

View – Create Calculation
View in 12 Easy Steps
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · UPDATED · MAY 17, 2019
In this tutorial, we are going to learn about the last and
complex of the three types of information views; the SAP
HANA Calculation View. Please make sure you have gone
through the tutorials of Attribute View and Analytic View as
they are important for your understanding of Calculation View.
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Let’s start the SAP HANA Calculation View Tutorial.
What is SAP HANA Calculation

View?
Calculation view in SAP HANA is the most important type of
information view as it enables you to perform advanced designing
operations on the data. You can apply advanced modeling logics
on data in Calculation View which you cannot do in Analytic
and Attribute view. In Attribute view, you can only work with
dimensions, whereas in analytic view, you work with multiple
dimension tables linked to one fact table. This means that these
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two views do not allow flexible use of dimensions and measures
and have a basic way of data modeling.
On the contrary, calculation views do not have such limitations
and enable a user to use complex calculation logic and combine
measures from more than one fact table. Along with this, you
can use advanced SQL logics and multiple layers of calculation
logics while creating a calculation view. It gives you the
freedom to combine and create from a range of options like
Tables, Column Views, Analytic Views, Attribute View, etc. This
enables a user to do multidimensional reporting using
measures and dimensions from different sources.
Explore the Unique SAP HANA Features

Characteristics of Calculation View
Some important characteristics of the calculation view are
given below:
 Calculation views support both OLTP and OLAP models.

 They support complex expression such as Case, Counter, IF.
 Supports special language such as R-lang.
 You can reuse Analytic Views, Attribute Views and even
other Calculation Views while creating a new Calculation
View.
 Calculation views support analytic privileges.
 It supports SAP ERP specific functionalities such as
currency conversion, language, client handling, etc.
 Enables the user to combine measures from multiple tables.
 Users can use both column-based and row-based tables.

Scenario Panel in Calculation View
When you open a calculation view editor to create a new view,
you will find a scenario panel on the left with five options; Join,
Union, Projection, Aggregation, and Rank. A Calculation View
in SAP HANA is created using a combination of these options.
1. Join – A join option connects two source objects or tables into
a single object. It is also referred to as a join node in the view
hierarchy. The join types between two tables can be inner, left
outer, right outer and text join.
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2. Union – The union option performs a full outer join on n
number of source objects and creates a single object by
combining their contents.
3. Projection – The projection option projects the table in a
certain way. You can use it to filter the columns of a table or
add some columns before using it in other nodes like
aggregation, rank, union, etc. You can only use one source
object while working in the projection node. If you wish to
create more than one table than use separate projections for
each. Projection nodes are used to convert column-based tables
into dim calculation tables.
4. Aggregation – In the aggregation node, you can perform
aggregation on selected dimensions and measures.
5. Rank – This is used to rank the values based on a criterion.
You can define the order by clause and partition in this node
based on the modeling requirements.
Steps to Create a Calculation

View in SAP HANA
In this section of the SAP HANA Calculation View Tutorial, we
will learn how to create a calculation view with a star join
option in SAP HANA Modeler. A star join is created when we
need measures from more than one fact table to use it in
reporting.
Step 1: Select Tables
Open the SAP HANA Information Modeler and decide the
tables which you want to use in making the Calculation
View. You can access the tables from the Catalog folder under
your SAP HANA system.
For understanding’s sake, let us assume that we are using four
tables, two-dimension tables, and two fact tables.
Step 2: Create a DIM information view
Go to the Content node and select the package under which you
need to create the calculation view. Right-click on the package
name, select New then select Calculation View.
Step 3: Converting dimension tables into DIM calculation tables
Before we start with bringing all the tables together, we need to

convert the two column-based dimension tables into DIM
calculation tables. For this, open a new calculation view and
enter the name of the view (for instance, DIM_CAL_1) and
select the Data Category as Dimension.
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Repeat this process again for every dimension table you have.
(we have named the second one as DIM_CAL_2)
Step 4: Adding dimension tables and columns
Now, add the dimension tables into the calculation view from
the green Add Object sign on the Projection section.
We will add the table EMPINFO (under the Projection section)
in the DIM_CAL_1 view. Similarly, add another dimension
table EMPRECORDS in DIM_CAL_2 calculation view.
Once the tables are added and columns from them are added in
the final output, save and activate the table by clicking on the
green tick and arrow button on the top bar.
Step 5: Create a calculation view

Now, after converting our two column-based dimension tables
as DIM tables, we will create the calculation view. Again, go to a
preferred package under the Content node. Right-click on the
package name > New > Calculation View.
Enter the details for the new calculation view such as Name,
Label, View Type (Calculation View), Type, Data
Category (CUBE). Check the “With star join” box if you are
creating a calculation view with a star join.
Step 6: Add measure/ fact tables
There are five types of operations given based on the scenario
in which the calculation view is being created. Those are Join,
Union, Projection, Aggregation, and Rank. All five perform
different functions (as their name suggests).
We will create two projections and add one fact table in each
projection. We have
added EMPFACT1 in Projection_1 and EMPFACT2 in Projectio
n_2.
Select the columns to be available in the reporting view from

both fact tables. You can see the selected columns or fields in
the Output section on the right.
Step7: Join the fact tables
Next, we will join the two fact tables
(EMPFACT1 and EMPFACT2). Select Join from the
left Scenario panel. Drag and drop the two projections
(Projection_1 and Projection_2) in the Join section. The two
projections will be joined and shown in the join box.
Then, we will physically join the two fact tables with the
common column. Suppose EMPID is a common column in both
the fact tables (EMPFACT1 and EMPFACT2). Select the columns
for output from the two fact tables.
Now the selected columns from the two fact tables will be in a
single join table. The name of this join table is Join_1.
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Must Learn – How to Create Tables in SAP HANA
Step 8: Create a star join
Next, we will join the Join table to the Star join section above it.
Also, we will add the two dimension tables
in DIM_CAL_1 and DIM_CAL_2 that we added earlier, into the
final star join calculation view.
So, we have added Join_1, DIM_CAL_1, and DIM_CAL_2 in
the Star Join section.
Step 9: Join dimension and fact tables.
Now that we have data from two dimension tables and a
combined fact table, we will join the fact (join table) with the
two dimension tables and select the final columns for output as
shown in the image below.
A detailed view of all three tables will appear on

the Details panel.
Step 10: Check Semantics
Moving on, we will go to the Semantics section to define the
measures and attributes. Click on the Auto Assign button to
automatically assign columns as measures and dimensions.
Step 11: Save and activate
Save and activate the final calculation view from the green arrow
button.
Step 12: Preview data from selected columns
You can preview the data by clicking on the Data Preview button
next to the Save and Activate button.
In the data preview section, you can carry out analysis by
creating visualizations using the available measures and
dimensions.
 SAP HANA – Schema Creation
Schema in SAP HANA –

Learn to Create Schema in 6
Easy Steps
Moving on with understanding the concepts and capabilities of
SAP HANA, we will learn about the schema in this tutorial.
Schemas are important when you work on SAP HANA Studio.
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We will also discuss the types of schemas in SAP HANA and
steps to create a schema in SAP HANA Modeler.
What is a Schema in SAP

HANA?
A schema is like a container which contains all the different
elements or objects of a relational database. The elements of
the system reside in the Catalog node of SAP HANA
Information Modeler. Within the Catalog node, the relational
SAP HANA database is divided into sub-databases known as
schemas. These schemas, acting as logical containers keep all
the objects relevant to the database such as tables, views,
functions indexes, stored procedures, etc.
In other words, it categorizes all the important information
about a database into folders. The schema is created as a
transportable design-time file (with extension “.hdbschema”)
which is a generally flat file stored in data repositories.
Components of a Schema in SAP HANA

Each schema consists of a fixed set of folders containing
relevant information:
 Column views
 EPM Models
 EPM Query Sources
 Functions
 Indexes
 Procedures
 Sequences
 Synonyms
 Tables
 Triggers
 Views
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Types of Schemas in SAP HANA
There are three types of schemas in SAP HANA:
1. User Defined Schema

The user-defined schema or custom schemas are created by
users such as a HANA DBA, System Administrator or a
developer. You can create a user-defined schema using an SQL
code.
The syntax for creating such a schema is:
1. CREATE SCHEMA <schema_name>;
Now, if you wish the objects such as tables or views residing

under this schema get consumes in other information views or
schemas, then you need to grant access at the time of creating a
schema.
The syntax for access granting statement is:
1. GRANT SELECT ON <schema_name> TO SYS_REPO WITH GRANT OPTION

2. System Defined Schema
The system defined schema contains SAP HANA system
information and is created with the SAP HANA database by a
system. There are standard system defined schemas such as
_SYS_BIC, _SYS_REPO, _SYS_BI, _SYS_STATISTICS,
_SYS_XS, etc. Each of this system defined schema contains
information relevant to specific system aspects.
 _SYS_BIC: Contains column views of all the activated

objects.
 _SYS_REPO: Contains all the objects available in the
repository such as activated objects, inactive objects,
runtime objects, package details, etc.
 _SYS_BI: Contains the metadata for the column views.
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 _SYS_STATISTICS: Contains information regarding
system configuration and parameters.
 _SYS_XS: Contains data related to SAP HANA Extended
Applications Services.
3. SLT Driven Schema
This schema is created when SLT is configured to carry out
replication of tables. It will contain all the tables that replicate
into SAP HANA through SLT. Such schemas create on Data
Provisioning by SLT process.
How to Create Schema in SAP

HANA Modeler
We can create schemas in SAP HANA in two ways:
1. By creating a user which automatically creates a schema for

that user.
2. Another method is by creating a customized schema under

an existing user without creating a new user.
Below are the steps to create a customized schema:
Step 1: Open the SQL Console in SAP HANA Modeler.
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Step 2: After that, the SQL Console is ready for you to enter
the SQL statement.
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1. CREATE SCHEMA TEST_SCHEMA OWNED BY TRAINER
Enter the SQL statement to create a schema. In the image
shown below, the schema named TEST_SCHEMA will create
which a pre-existing user, TRAINER, owns
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Understand the concept of SAP HANA Modeling
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Step 3: To execute this statement, select the statement written
and click on the green execute icon (indicated by the red
arrow). You can use keyboard shortcut F8 for this.
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A message at the bottom of the console will confirm successful
execution.
Step 4: Then, to find the newly created schema, refresh the

Catalog.
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Step 5: After that, the schema will add.
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Also, if you go and check the list of users, no new user is added.
Step 6: Then, you can also drop the table by writing a small
code as shown below.
1. CREATE SCHEMA TEST_SCHEMA OWNED BY TRAINER

2.
3. DROP SCHEMA TEST_SCHEMA
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 SAP HANA – Table Creation
Tables in SAP HANA – Easy

Steps to Create Tables Using
SQL Console & Modeler
In this tutorial, we will learn how to create tables in SAP HANA
within schemas. We will also learn about the types of tables and
creating them using SQL Console and SAP HANA Information
Modeler. So, let’s start by discussing the types of tables.
Types of Tables in SAP HANA

Tables can be created in SAP HANA to store data from different
data sources connected to SAP HANA. Every schema has a
table folder under which tables get creates. In SAP HANA,
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there two ways to create a table and there are three types of
tables which you can create:
A user can create three types of tables in SAP HANA.
 Column Table: The column tables stores data in a columnar

(vertical) fashion. The column tables are the most suitable
objects and are set as the default table type in SAP HANA.
That is all the tables that get replicates, save as column
tables. Also, column tables are fast in accessing and
occupies less storage space as they are highly compressed.
 Row Table: The row tables, as opposed to column tables,
arranges in a horizontal fashion storing data in rows.
We mostly use these tables to store metadata, system
parameters and system statistics. In some cases, row tables
are more efficient than column tables, but from a
performance point of view in SAP HANA, column tables are
preferred.
 Type Table: The type tables are specifically for passing
parameters and used when a user creates a calculation
view using SQL statements.
Ways of Creating Tables in SAP

HANA
There are two ways of creating tables in SAP HANA. One
method is a command line method, where you use the SQL
console to write an SQL script and create a table. The second
method is a GUI based method where you use a graphical
interface to create a table. Let us learn about the two methods
in detail.
1. Using SQL console

Firstly, login into the SAP HANA system using the login
credentials. We have shown sample usernames for the sake of
understanding.
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Login Option in Information Modeler
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Entering User Name and Password
Step 1: After logging in to the system, open the SQL
Console/Editor from the icon that the arrow indicates in the
image. You can also open the SQL Editor by right-clicking on
your system or schema and selecting SQL Editor option.
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Step 2: In the SQL console, write the SQL statement for
creating a table.
The syntax for creating a table is:
1. create <table type> table <table name>(<field name1> <data type>, <field name2>
<data type>, …..);
In the image shown above, it is a Column type Table naming

customer_3. At the end of this statement, you must also specify
the primary key.
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You can also create a Row Table by mentioning the table type
as Row Table in the statement.

Step 3: Execute the newly created table by clicking on the
execute button or pressing F8 key.
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Step 4: Once the execution carries out successfully, you can
refresh the schema under which the table is made and find the
name of the table in the Tables folder.
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Step 5: You can click on the table name to open the table and
look into it.
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Note: To insert data in the table, write the SQL statement for
which the syntax is:
1. INSERT INTO <table name> VALUE (‘<valueforfield1>’,’<valueforfield2>’…);
To select a data table:
1. SELECT*FROM <table name>;

Check out the features & installation of SAP HANA Studio
2. Using GUI/Information modeler

In the GUI based method, you just have to enter some details in
an empty tabular structure.
Step 1: Right-click on the Tables folder under the schema you

want to create tables in. Click on New Table.
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Step 2: A table editor will open where you just need to enter
relevant details like table name, table type, and schema.
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Must check: Latest SAP HANA Use Cases
Dimensions of Table
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Step 3: Next is creating the main table where you enter details
like column name, SQL data type, dimension, assign a primary
key column, select columns as not null, add a default value,
comments.
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Default value of Table
Step 4: The table editor has other tabs as well, such as an
Indexed column, Further properties column, Runtime
Information column containing different information and
details about the table created.
Indexes Column of Table Editor
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Further properties column of Table Editor
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Step 5: Once you enter all the details for the table, execute it by
pressing F8 or clicking on the Execute button on the bar.
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Step 6: Upon successful execution, you will see a final table.
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Understand the concept of SAP HANA Modeling
Step 7: Also, you can find the newly created table in the Tables
folder.
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You can right-click on the table name to get different options
for the table.
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 SAP HANA – Packages
SAP HANA Packages – A

Precise Guide to Create
Packages in SAP HANA
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · MAY 20, 2019
After learning how to create tables in SAP HANA, let us move
forward and learn about another such important file known as
a package. After completing the tutorial, you will understand,
what are packages, types of packages and how to create
packages in SAP HANA Studio.
What are Packages in SAP

HANA?
Packages, as the name suggests are folders which contain all
the modeling related data objects. The design-time objects such
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as information views, sub-packages, procedure, analytic
privilege reside in a package. It is called a package because it
can contain all the information modeling data in a complete
package and can be used for transferring (Import/Export)
purposes. Thus, we can exchange the modeling information as
packages within different SAP HANA Studio instances. The
packaging procedures groups modeling information in an
organized and structured way.
Types of SAP HANA Packages

There are two types of packages in SAP HANA; Structural and
Non-structural.
1. Structural: In a structural package, the modeling content is

organized in a structured fashion in a logical package tree. The
structural packages only contain sub-packages and do not
contain information objects. This prevents undesired creation
of objects.
2. Non-structural: The non-structural packages, on the contrary,
are not organized and contains both sub-packages and
information objects.
Have you checked? – Steps to Create Analytical Privileges in SAP
HANA
How to Create Packages in SAP

HANA
There are just four steps to create packages in SAP HANA:
Step 1: To create a package, open the SAP HANA Modeler and
select Package option from its main page.
Or go to the Content folder. Right-click on it. Select New. Then

select Package.
Step 2: Create Package/ New Package
Enter the details related to the package such as Name,
Description, Delivery Unit, Original Language and user (Person
Responsible) under which the package is created. Click
on OK to continue.
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Step 3: Refresh the content folder and you will find the name of
the newly created package there.
Step 4: Right-click on the package name and you will a list of
options of modeling objects such as:
 Package… (sub-package)
 Attribute view…
 Analytic view…
 Calculation view…
 Analytic privilege…
 Procedures…
The packages that we create within a package are sub-packages
and they save with a dot in their name after the name of the
main package (for example, test.dtf) where “dtf” is the name of
the sub-package.
Learn the working of SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Tools
What are Delivery units?
A delivery unit is a single entity or unit that maps or carries
multiple packages to it. All the packages mapped in a specific
delivery unit are transported to other systems as a single unit.
Follow the procedure given below to create a delivery unit in

SAP HANA Studio.
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1. In SAP HANA Modeler perspective of SAP HANA Studio,
select Delivery Units from Quick View section given on the
right.
2. Enter the details for the new delivery unit such as Name,
Vendor, Responsible, Version, Support Package Version, Patch
Version. Click OK.
3. In the next step, select the packages you want to include in
your delivery unit. Check the box saying “Select all sub-
packages under the selected nodes” if you want to include all
the sub-packages as well.
4. For naming the sub-packages, add a name after the name of
the main package. For instance, DataFlair is the name of
the package so DataFlair.Employees will be the name of the
sub-package (add the sub-package’s name after the dot “.”)
5. Then, click on Finish.
 SAP HANA – Joins
Joins in SAP HANA –

Create Standard Database &
Specific Joins in 7 Mins
Earlier, we learned to create tables in SAP HANA, now, we will
learn the different types of joins in SAP HANA.
Data tables are a crucial element in SAP HANA modeling and
data designing. As we know, SAP HANA hosts many kinds of
data sources and allows you to combine records for data
modeling from multiple sources of data. If we fetch data from
different tables or have more than one table in an information
model or view, we will need to join these tables.
In this tutorial, we will start with understanding what are joins,

their significance in SAP HANA and then learn the types of
joins and script used to create them in SAP HANA.
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What are Joins in SAP HANA?
Joins in SAP HANA are used for joining two or more tables
having relevant data or records that creates a logical
association between the tables. The joins are very important to
bind the modeling object in a logical framework because these
modeling objects are used for reporting and analytical purposes
later. And, if tables in SAP HANA are not joined with an
appropriate join type, proper associations will not be formed,
and the report analysis will be flawed.
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Types of SAP HANA Joins
SAP HANA supports a number of ways to join different data
tables together. Before we start to learn the types of joins and
how they work in SAP HANA, let us understand the concept of
tables. Whenever we will talk about a join clause, we presume
that the join is applied between two tables. We refer to the two
tables as a left table and a right table. The two tables which we
will use for explanatory purposes are given below:
Table 1: Customer_Info
Customer_Name
Customer_ID
CT1 Rajesh Sharma
CT2 Sameer Khanna
CT3
Neeti Rana
CT4
Nimish Kapoor
Table 2: Order_Details
Order_ID Customer_ID Product_Name Total_Units
CT1 iPad 300

1101
CT1 MacBook 200

1102
1103 CT2 Fridge

500
1104 CT3 LED TV

650
1105 CT5 Camera

800
You may refer to the SQL script given below to create your own
table in SAP HANA. We are providing the script to create the
two tables mentioned above. Here the name of our schema is
SALES_2018. You can insert the name of your
own schema under which you are creating the table.
Script:
1. CREATE COLUMN TABLE SALES_2018.
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2. "CUSTOMER_INFO" (
3. "Customer_ID" nvarchar(10) primary key,
4. "Customer_Name" nvarchar(50)
5. );
6. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."CUSTOMER_INFO" VALUES ('CT1', 'Rajesh
Sharma');
7. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."CUSTOMER_INFO" VALUES ('CT2', 'Sameer
Khanna');
8. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."CUSTOMER_INFO" VALUES ('CT3', 'Neeti Rana');
9. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."CUSTOMER_INFO" VALUES ('CT4', 'Nimish
Kapoor');
1. CREATE COLUMN TABLE SALES_2018."ORDER_DETAILS" (

2. "Order_ID" integer primary key,
3. "Customer_ID" nvarchar(10),
4. "Product_Name" nvarchar(20),
5. "Total_Units" integer
6. );
7. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."ORDER_DETAILS" VALUES (1101,
'CT1','iPad',300);
'CT1','MacBook',200);
'CT2','Fridge',500);
10. INSERT INTO SALES_2018."ORDER_DETAILS" VALUES (1104, 'CT3','LED
TV',650);
'CT5','Camera',800);
1. Standard Database Joins

i. Inner Join
The inner joins in SAP HANA join the left and right tables with
only matching records. That is, only that part is displayed in
both tables that coincide. Let us see how inner join will work
with the two tables we created.
Customer_ID Customer_Name Product_Name Total_Units

Order_ID
CT1 Rajesh Sharma iPad 300

1101
CT1 Rajesh Sharma MacBook

1102 200
1103 CT2 Sameer Khanna Fridge

500
1104 CT3 Neeti Rana LED TV

650
As you can see, data related to only the customers CT1, CT2,
and CT3 were taken in the final table because only these are
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common between the left and right table. Inner joins are very
useful while creating information models as you can use it to
join tables in Attribute Views. You can also use it to join the
master data tables with fact tables of Analytic Views when
referential integrity of records is not assured.
The script to create inner join is shown below (here T1 is table 1

and T2 is table 2):
1. SELECT T2."Order_ID", T1."Customer_ID", T1."Customer_Name",

T2."Product_Name", T2."Total_Units"
2. from "CUSTOMER_INFO" AS T1
3. INNER JOIN
4. "ORDER_DETAILS" AS T2
5. ON T1."Customer_ID" = T2."Customer_ID";
ii. Left Outer Join

The left outer joins combine the entire left table with only the
matching records from the right table. Sometimes, if the engine
can’t find any records matching for the left columns in the right
table then it returns NULL at those places.
Checkout Latest SAP HANA Use Cases
212
In our case, all the rows and columns from the left table
CUSTOMER_INFO will be fetched and joined with only the
matching records in the right table ORDER_DETAILS.
Order_ID Customer_ID Customer_Name Product_Name

Total_Units
1101 CT1 Rajesh Sharma iPad 300
CT1 Rajesh Sharma MacBook 200

1102
1103 CT2 Sameer Khanna Fridge

500

650
NULL CT Nimish Kapoor NULL

NULL
The script to create left outer join is shown below (here T1 is

table 1 and T2 is table 2):

3. LEFT OUTER JOIN
Explore the Unique Features of SAP HANA

iii. Right Outer Join
The right outer joins in SAP HANA combines the entire right
table with the matching contents in the left table. The right
outer join is very rarely used in real scenarios. It returns NULL
in place of values which do not find an association with the
records in the right table.
213
In our case, all the records from the right table
ORDER_DETAILS will be fetched and only the matching or
associated records from the left table CUSTOMER_INFO will
be taken. The final table is shown below.
Order_ID Customer_ID Customer_Name Product_Name

Total_Units
1101 CT1 Rajesh Sharma iPad 300

1102
CT2 Sameer Khanna Fridge

1103 500

650
1105 CT5 NULL Camera

800
The script to create a right outer join is shown below (here T1 is


3. RIGHT OUTER JOIN
Must learn: SAP HANA Studio Overview

iv. Full Outer Join/Union
A full outer joins in SAP HANA combines all the records from
both left and right tables irrespective of the matching
conditions. The cells which do not find any association with the
other table are left NULL. It is also known as a union.
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The tables CUSTOMER_INFO and ORDER_DETAILS will
have all their records in the final table as shown below.
Customer_ID Customer_Name Product_Name Total_Units

Order_ID
CT1 Rajesh Sharma iPad 300

1101

1102
CT2 Sameer Khanna Fridge 500

1103

650
NULL CT4 Nimish Kapoor NULL

NULL
1105 CT5 NULL Camera

800
The script to create full outer join is shown below (here T1 is


3. FULL OUTER JOIN
Learn to work on SAP HANA Administration Console

2. Specific Joins
These join types are SAP HANA SQL script-specific joins:
i. Referential Join
Referential join is the default join type in SAP HANA modeling.
A referential join is similar to an inner join. The only difference
between the two is referential integrity must be ensured in the
case of referential join otherwise it cannot be formed. So,
before we move forward with understanding referential
integrity. Let us learn the basic concept of a referential join. It
is formed between a fact table (transaction data or Analytic
View) and a master data table( Attribute View). Every master
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data table has a primary key column which acts as a foreign key
in the fact table.
Referential joins in SAP HANA are used whenever there is a
primary key and foreign key association between two tables.
And, referential integrity is when for every value in the foreign
key column, there is a reference value in the primary key
column of the master data table. From a performance point of
view, referential joins are better than inner joins. Referential
joins are recommended for star schemas as long as referential
integrity is maintained.
Customer_Name City_Code Region

Customer_ID
Rajesh Sharma MUM East

CT1
CT2 Sameer Khanna IDR

Central
CT3 Neeti Rana HYD

South
CT4 Nimish Kapoor CHN

South
Order_No. Customer_ID Product_Name Total_Units PRICE
CT1 iPad 300 40,000

1101987
CT1 MacBook 200 80,500

1102568
1103282 CT2 Fridge 500

95,000
1104229 CT3 LED TV 650

1,20,000
1105554 CT4 Camera 800

28,000
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Understand the concept of Data Warehousing in SAP HANA
ii. Text Join
Text joins in SAP HANA provides a description of text records
in the language specific to the user. If user A has selected the
language as German, then all the details regarding the table
and columns will be displayed to the user in German. We use
text joins to join a text table with a master data table. The text
table must have a primary key column linked to the other data
table and a language key column which contains user language
preferences. Text joins are also used with SAP tables having
SPRAS session language columns.
 SAP HANA – Analytic Privileges
How to Create Analytic

Privileges in SAP HANA –
An Outstanding Guide
If you plan to work on SAP HANA and master it, then you can’t
afford to miss SAP HANA Analytic Privileges. We will learn
about this concept in detail here as it plays a crucial role in SAP
HANA functioning. With the help of this tutorial, you will learn
to create both types of analytic privileges i.e. Classical and SQL
217
in easy steps.
Hope you have completed the Joins in SAP HANA tutorial
What are Analytic Privileges in

SAP HANA?
To start with understanding analytic privileges in SAP HANA,
let us imagine a scenario. Suppose you work in an MNC. The
company is based in the USA but has offices in other countries
like India, Japan, Germany, China, etc. They have a central
repository where sales data for all the countries is stored
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together. But they don’t want all the report developers sitting
across the globe to access entire data regarding sales.
Then, what do they do? They restrict each report

developer/user to access the sales data of their concerning
region/country only. So, if you are working in India, you will
only get to see and work with the sales data of India.
Thus, analytic privileges have the same job to do in SAP HANA,

that is, restrict users to access only that portion of data that is
relevant to them and their business roles from the whole. That
is why they are named analytic privileges as they permit users
to access a decided data set as their privilege.
Following the similar concept, analytic privileges in SAP HANA

are data access restrictions defined and assigned to selected
users. They work as data security tools for SAP HANA users
and clients. Analytic privileges are created over information
modeling objects and restrict users to see just a decided part
from the information views present in that package or
modeling objects. You can create an analytic privilege for
calculation view, attribute view or analytic view.
Must learn – Steps to Create Analytic View in SAP HANA

Analytic privileges provide row-level data security to SAP
HANA users as opposed to object-level security assigned by
object privileges. Object-level security can only allow or restrict
a user from opening an object, but row-level security allows or
restricts users from accessing specific columns within an
object.
A user to which an analytic privilege is assigned can only see

the attributes and data related to it according to the condition
defined while creating the privilege. For instance, if a user
named Aron_UK has an analytical privilege where he can only
see employee data for the year 2018, then, he cannot access
data from any other year. Also, you can only select attributes to
define analytic privilege and no measures can be selected.
Types of Analytic Privileges in SAP

HANA
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Now, we will learn two types of analytic privileges that you can
create in SAP HANA.
i. Classical Analytic Privilege

The classical analytic privilege is the simple XML-based
privilege which use SAP HANA Studio UI to create and assign
basic privileges to users. Some features of classical analytic
privileges in SAP HANA are:
 Applicable on attribute views, analytic views, and

calculation view.
 It does not give the user, control over read-only access to
SQL views and database tables.
 Enables design-time modeling on SAP HANA Information
Modeler and SAP HANA Workbench.
 It does not allow design-time modeling on SAP web IDE for
SAP HANA.
 It is transportable.
 Do not offer HDI support.
 Do not offer complex filtering.
ii. SQL Analytic Privilege
SQL analytic privilege is SQL-based and allows users to create
more complex restriction conditions than classic privileges.
Users can apply complex filtering and restriction conditions
based on information models and procedures. These privileges
also differ slightly in terms of flexibility and options in creating
privileges. Some important features of SQL analytic privilege
are:
 Applicable on attribute views, analytic views, and

calculation view.
 It enables a user to control read-only access to SQL views
and but not database tables.
 Enables design-time modeling on SAP HANA Information

Modeler and SAP HANA Workbench.
 It allows design-time modeling on SAP web IDE for SAP
HANA.
 It is transportable.
 Offers HDI support.
 Offers complex filtering.
Creating Analytic Privileges in SAP
HANA
220
Moving further in SAP HANA Analytic Privileges Tutorial, we
will learn the steps to create classical analytic privilege and SQL
analytic privilege. The procedures for creating analytic privilege
is nearly same for both classical and SQL analytic privilege. The
SQL analytic privilege just differs when you need to write an
SQL script to define complex formulations and restriction
conditions which cannot otherwise be done using the XML-
based user interface method.
Steps to Create Classical Analytic

Privilege
Step 1: Open SAP HANA Studio and login to the system. All the
folders within a system will be visible once you log in.
Step 2: Go to the Content node and right-click on the package
under which you wish to create an analytic privilege. Click
on New and Select Analytic Privilege from the options.
Step 3: Create an Analytic Privilege
Enter the name of the privilege, add a label/description. Also,
you can change the package from here.
Select the type of privilege, create new or copy the format of

existing privilege. Click on Next to continue.
Step 4: Select Information Models
From the next dialog, select the information views upon which
you wish to assign the analytic privilege.
You can select any calculation, analytic or attribute view from the
available list. To add a view into your privilege, select the view
and click on Add.
Step 5: Next, the main analytic privilege will open to creating an

interface. It divides into five sections. Let us discuss them one
by one.
The first section is the General section. It shows the Name of the
analytic privilege, Label, and Type. You can check
the “Applicable to all information models” if you wish this
privilege to apply on all the views containing the selected
attribute.
 Below, is the Secured Models section containing the list of
secured models or information views that are available and
on which you can apply analytic privileges.
 The “Associated Attributes Restriction” section is where you select
attributes from the selected view. To select an attribute,
click on Add. Similarly, to remove an existing attribute, click
on Remove.
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 In the “Assign Restriction” section, you can select the Type of
restriction (procedural or fixed), Operator and Value based on
which you want to put the data access restriction.
There are several operator types from which you can select such
as equal, greater than, greater equal, less than, less equal, etc. For
instance, we have set the restriction value as 2001 i.e. the user
can only see data for the year 2001.
Explore all types of SAP HANA SQL Operators
 Another section is the “Privilege Validity” section from where
you set the validity period of the analytic privilege that you
are creating. From the Inclusion option, include
the From and To dates.
You can select the appropriate operator under
the Operator column and enter a date or period (from and to) of
validity.
After entering all the details, select the year 2001 from the
attribute YEAR of the calculation view. Finally, click on
the green execute button present on the upper bar.
Step 6: Next, we will assign the created privilege to a user. You
do this by selecting a user from the Security node (suppose we
have selected user DTF1).
This will open the user details pane. At the bottom, select
Analytic Privilege tab and add the analytic privilege by clicking
on the green plus + icon.
Step 7: Select Analytic Privileges
Search for the analytic privilege from the list using the search
option. Then, click on OK.
The analytic privilege, you select will be added and applied for
that user.
Step 8: You can also confirm the successful creation of the

analytic privilege by looking in the Analytic Privileges folder
under the relevant package (in your HANA system folder).
Step 9: If the user DTF1 opens the calculation view DTF_UNION,
only the data for the year 2001 will be visible. Thus, it shows
that the analytic privilege is successfully applied to the user
DTF1.
Steps to Create SQL Analytic Privilege
To create SQL Analytic Privilege, select the privilege type as
SQL Analytic Privilege when entering the name of the privilege
in initial stages.
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On the window of privilege creator, there are three options are
available while creating SQL analytic privilege; Attribute, SQL
Editor and Dynamic. All the three modes are for the users to
create analytic privilege according to the level of complexity of
restriction logic.
If you wish to create a simple privilege, then go with attribute
option. If you wish to apply a filter condition through a SQL
statement to define the privilege, then go for SQL Editor
method. You can also apply complex filter conditions having
sub-queries. And if your privilege has a complex formulation
logic which involves procedures and state of the user, then
select the dynamic option.
Don’t forget to check SAP HANA SQL Statements

We will discuss how to create a privilege from each.
Step 1: Attribute option – It is the same as creating the classic

analytic privilege. Select an attribute from the view you have
selected. Then enter a value for restriction for instance, “United
States”.
Step 2: SQL Editor option – You can simply enter the restriction
conditions as a SQL statement. You can make the logic as
complex as possible by creating the script as per the
requirement.
For instance, in our case, the restriction condition SQL
statement would be:
1. ((“SALES_COUNTRY” = ‘United States’))

Step 3: Dynamic option – Using this option, you can define a
complex procedure and base data access on the outcome of
more than one events or procedures.
For instance, we have created a procedure where only the user
named DTF_USER has access to only the data related to the
USA in the calculation view named CA_DEALER_SALES_SQL.
The complex procedure used is:
1. SELECT * from “PUBLIC”. "STRUCTURED_PRIVILEGES”

2. where ROOT_SCHENA_NAME = '_SYS_DTF'
3.
4. AND ROOT_OBJECT NAME = ‘hana-modeling/COMP_SALES_SQL’
5. AND USER_NAME = 'DTF_USER'
Now, when the user DTF_USER open the calculation view
CA_DEALER_SALES_SQL, all the data related to the United
States will be visible.
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Please note that no other SAP HANA user can access this
particular set of data (related to sales only in the USA) because
they don’t have that analytic privilege assigned to them. For
them to access the data, you need to add that analytic privilege
to that particular user.
 SAP HANA – Information Composer

 SAP HANA – Import and Export
Import and Export in SAP

HANA – Gain Expertise in
All the Methods!
Now, we will move on to learning the import and export
functionalities given in SAP HANA. There are multiple options
for both importing and exporting data, in and out of SAP
HANA. With this tutorial, you will understand all the different
import/export options and methods available in SAP HANA.
Import/Export in SAP HANA

The import and export options are used to transport database
objects such as information views, data tables, landscapes, etc to
other systems or within the same system. In addition to
database objects, importing of metadata from other systems is
also done using these options. The import and export options
save a user’s time and effort to recreate the objects on a target
system. Users can easily transfer database objects to target
systems using the import and export options available in SAP
HANA Studio.
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In SAP HANA Studio, there are a number of ways in which data
objects can be imported and exported.
Explore all the information views in SAP HANA Information

Modeler
1. Import options
There are two folders which provide different methods to
import; an SAP HANA folder and an SAP HANA Content folder.
The options within SAP HANA folder are:
 Catalog Objects
 ESRI Shapefiles
 Landscape
The options within SAP HANA Content folder are:
 Data from Local File

 Delivery Unit
 Developer Mode
 Mass Import of Metadata
 SAP NetWeaver BW Models
 Selective Import of Metadata
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2. Export options
Similar to the import options, there are two folders available
for exporting; an SAP HANA folder and an SAP HANA Content
folder. There are various export methods available within these
folders.
The options within SAP HANA folder are:
 Catalog Objects
 Landscape
The options within SAP HANA Content folder are:
 Change and Transport System (CTS)

 Delivery Unit
 Developer Mode
 SAP Support Mode
In the following sections, we will discuss all the different types
of import and export methods in detail. We will also learn how
to perform these methods in SAP HANA Studio.
Importing Data in SAP HANA

In this section, we will see how to import data from external
systems using different options given under the SAP HANA
content folder.
You can access the import and export options in the SAP HANA
Studio either in the File menu or in the SAP HANA
Modeler section on the right of SAP HANA Modeler
perspective.
Click on Import option and an Import dialog box will appear. In
this dialog, you will see seven different import methods. You
can select one of these seven options to import the data.
We have explained each method separately in the sections

below:
1. Data from Local File

Import data from flat files such as .txt, .csv, .xml, .xls, .xlsx etc. to
the local system. To import the flat files like csv and xml, click
on the Data from Local File option. And click Next. Select a
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target system from which you wish to import the file.
Click Next.
1.1. Define Import Properties
A dialog will appear asking you to define all the import
properties such as Source File, Header Rows, Field Delimiter,
Import All Data Or Not, Target Table, etc. You can import the data
into an existing file or create a new file under a schema to
accommodate the data. Click on Next> to continue.
1.2. Manage Table Definition and Data Mappings
In the next window, you will get table definition and data
mapping options. Here you can assign a primary key, select
attributes and measures, view a summary of the table and map
the imported contents into an existing column.
1.3. Summary View

Upon clicking Next, you will get a summary view of the
resultant table with imported data. The details of the table such
as Source File Name, Target Table Name, Target Table Schema are
also displayed here.
Click on Finish to successfully complete the import. You can
confirm this import by checking the presence of the table (if
newly created) or refreshing the contents of existing ones.
2. Delivery Unit
Select the Delivery Unit option and click Next. Select a target
system from which you wish to import the file. Click Next.
Importing through Delivery Unit
In the import dialog, enter the importing details for the delivery
unit. Select a delivery unit file from the server or client source.
Assign the actions upon importing like overwrite inactive
versions an activate objects. The activate objects automatically
activates the imported objects once the delivery unit gets
successfully imported. You can also select an activation mode.
The details of the delivery unit i.e. the object and the package
name are also displayed.
3. Developer Mode
Select the Developer Mode option and click Next. Select a target
Selecting System Folder
In the developer mode import dialog, you can browse the
system to select the folder containing the object of interest.
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Next, you can add the desired database object from the selected
folder. Select a package (from Objects for Import section) and
click on Add button to import it into SAP HANA system.
4. Mass Import of Metadata
The Mass Import of Metadata option imports all the metadata
i.e. table definitions residing in SAP ERP source systems using
SAP load controllers. To import metadata using this method,
select the Mass Import of Metadata option and click Next. Select
a target system from which you wish to import the file.
Click Next.
Connection Details
Enter the SAP ERP system connection details to establish a
connection with the source and import the metadata through
this window. You need to fill the following details:
4.1. Source Details

 System Name
 Host Name
 Schema Name
4.2. Target Details
 Server Name
 Instance Number
 Schema
 OS User
 Password
5. SAP NetWeaver BW Models

The SAP NetWeaver method is used to import Business
Warehouse models from the SAP NetWeaver platform.
6. Selective Import of Metadata

The selective import of metadata option imports the metadata
or information about only selected data tables or objects from
the SAP ERP systems. It is different from the Mass Import of
Metadata option as in that option the entire metadata of all the
database objects residing in the SAP ERP system is imported
into SAP HANA. Whereas in Selective Import of Metadata, only
selected object’s metadata is imported into SAP HANA.
7. Landscape and Tables
By the Landscape option, you can import entire landscapes into
SAP HANA. These landscapes are essentially the ones which
were previously exported into a local system.
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In addition to this, by using the Tables option, you can import
the tables and their contents of the exported tables into the
target system.
Exporting Data in SAP HANA

To export data from SAP HANA, we open an Export dialog by
clicking on the Export option from the file menu or SAP HANA
Modeler perspective section.
The Export dialog box will show four export methods under the
SAP HANA Content folder. Let’s discuss the four export options
in detail.
1. Change and Transport System (CTS)

The Change and Transport System (CTS) method is used to
export the database objects such as information views created
in ABAP programs. The CTS method is essentially used by the
CTS support teams.
2. Delivery Unit
A delivery unit is a single entity or unit that maps multiple
packages to it. All the packages mapped in a specific delivery
unit are transported to other systems as a single unit.
The delivery unit method is used to export packages and other

relevant database objects to a HANA Server (another HANA
system) or to a local client (local machine).
Selecting Delivery Unit

Select the Delivery Unit option and click Next. Select a target
In the export dialog box, fill in the details specific to the
delivery unit you wish to export.
Select the Delivery Unit from the drop-down list of available

units (only exports data from the selected time frame), select
a filter of Time Interval and select the Export Location, File
Name. Click on Next.
A summary page will appear showing the details of the export.

The details shown are, Delivery Unit name, From Date, To Date, File
Name, File Path. Click on Finish.
You can also verify the export occurred successfully by checking
for the delivery unit in the target folder in the target system.
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3. Developer Mode
The Developer Mode method is essentially used to export
individual database objects to a location in the local client
system. It is different from the delivery unit method as in that
you have to export multiple packages enclosed in a single unit
and cannot export individual files.
To use this option, select the Developer Mode option and

click Next. Select a target system from which you wish to import
the file. Click Next.
Recommended Reading – Schema Creation in SAP HANA
Selecting Objects
In the next dialog, you can select an individual view from a
package and add it for exporting, after it selects a target
location i.e. a folder within your local system.
Click on Finish to complete the export.

You can confirm a successful export by checking for the
exported view in the target folder. If the folder is present in the
target location, the export process is successful.
4. SAP Support Mode

By this method, you can export database objects and data for
SAP support purposes. Users use this export method in case of
errors to seek help in troubleshooting and debugging from the
SAP Support team.
In the SAP Support Mode option, you simply have to select the
data object facing issues and add it into the Selected section.
Then choose the export location, i.e. to server or local client.

Add the required details and click on Finish. The database object
will be exported to the support team’s system successfully.
5. Landscape and Tables
Using the Landscape option, you can export entire landscapes
from SAP HANA to target systems.
In addition to this, by the Tables option, you can export tables
and their contents from SAP HANA to the target system.
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 SAP HANA – In-Memory Computing
Learn 5 Major Components

of SAP HANA In-Memory
Computing Environment
In the previous tutorial, we learned about Reporting in SAP
HANA; now, we are going to learn about the in-memory
computing of SAP HANA. All the technical capabilities and
efficiencies are possible due to the proficient in-memory
computing engine working on the back side.
Let’s explore how SAP HANA becomes a popular in-memory
database technology by virtue of in-memory computing in this
article.
What is In-Memory Computing?

In-memory computing stores oceans of data as information in
the Random-Access Memory (RAM) of the systems operating in
an environment. This technology replaces the conventional way
of storing data in disks and using relational database
management methods to fetch and process it. The traditional
method is much slower than in-memory storage and
computing. In-memory computing technology serves a large
customer base ranging from industries, finance, manufacturing
to retail, banking, utility, etc. It is used in both managing and
manipulating data through fast and efficient processing.
Also, in-memory computing technology is much cheaper than
the traditional database system. The most popular and widely
used application for in-memory technology is SAP HANA. It is
because of this why SAP HANA is also called a High-speed
Analytical Appliance. In a technology like SAP HANA, you can
perform real-time analytics on big data as well as develop real-
time applications.
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What makes an in-memory computing
technology like SAP HANA so widely
accepted?
Well, the answer lies in the question. The primary reason for its
success is the in-memory storage and computing technology.
Earlier, traditional database management methods were used
in enterprise applications where data was stored and fetched
from the storage disks. It added an extra process which is the
movement of data from the database (hard-disk) to the
respective application server. This made the entire process slow
and inefficient.
In efforts to improve this, applications in SAP HANA is

developed in close association with the database, and there is
close to no data movement in it. Thus, SAP HANA keeps an
original copy of the data ready in in-memory storage which
results in the quick query response, data access, and processing
for ad-hoc reporting and analysis of real-time data.
Along with keeping data ready in memory, SAP HANA

technology also reduces the complexity of data models for
ERPs. It is done by using columnar storage methods of
arranging data in-memory. Column-oriented organizing makes
data processing faster along with allowing high data
compression rates and cache-efficient processing. No data
redundancy is there in the SAP HANA database resulting in
simpler data models. Also, SAP HANA is a unique technology
because it integrates OLTP and OLAP functionalities.
Both analytical and transactional data gets accessed, processed
and analyzed in real-time with the help of SAP HANA which
improves the data analysis. This integration also allows the
addition of some new features of processing and analyzing semi
and unstructured data along with the general structured data.
Thus, due to all these reasons, it is evident that SAP HANA is a
break-through technology in database management.
The diagram below shows the connection between the SAP

HANA database with other SAP tools.
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Explore the Unique Features of SAP HANA
SAP HANA In-Memory

Computing Environment
SAP HANA is an in-memory computing technology which
comprises of both hardware and software to process large
amounts of real-time data. It is a platform which you can
deploy both on-premise as well as on the cloud. Here,
everything from developing applications to
performing analysis achieves in real-time because of the in-
memory computing. SAP HANA provides a multi-engine query
processing environment where multi-core CPUs, multiple CPUs
per board and various boards on an application server are used.
233
It makes data processing about a million times faster than that
from the disk.
The conventional or traditional database systems fetched data

in 5 milliseconds whereas the in-memory database engine does
it in 5 nanoseconds. Also, in SAP HANA massive parallel
processing is possible due to efficient database partitioning.
There is no need to use aggregate tables for removing data
redundancy and duplication. Data can compress up to 10 times.
Also, the data is written only in delta storage (fast loading), and
both row and column-oriented data organizing are possible.
Learn to Install SAP HANA Studio

In the above diagram, it is the SAP HANA environment where
operations carry on with the in-memory computing engine at
its core. The in-memory computing engine takes care of
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memory management during sessions and transactions, data
persistence, etc. A computing engine surroundes by different
servers and applications which fetches data from the database
with the help of the data engine. Data replication implements
in this environment, where data replicates from a source (SAP
or Non-SAP) using appropriate replication techniques. Various
business objects tools interact with the computing engine
through query languages like SQL, MDX, BICS, etc. It also
performs session and user management, data persistence, etc.
Let us discuss some of the additional servers and components
working with the computing engine:
1. SAP HANA In-Memory Computing

Engine
It is a component residing within the Index Server in SAP
HANA. It has got several sub-components such as Session
Management, Request Processing, and Execution Control,
Relational Engine, Planning Engine, Disk Storage, etc. Let us
learn about them in detail.
 Connection and Session Management: Creates and manages

the connection session between clients and SAP HANA
database. These sessions establish for the user to
communicate with the database using different query
languages.
 Authorization Manager: This component allows only
authorized users with a legible user ID. It makes sure that
the users access, manipulate and share only that data which
they are allowed to access.
 Replication Server: This is responsible for managing the
replication of table data as well as metadata from the data
source.
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 Planning Engine: This creates an execution plan to apply on
the database depending on the query sent to the computing
engine.
 Metadata Manager: It stores all the information, i.e.,
metadata about the data table structures, views, data types,
field descriptions, etc.
 Transaction Manager: It manages data transactions and
keeps track of Commits and Rollbacks.
 Request Processing and Execution Control: This component
receives queries or requests from client applications and
directs it towards the respective component in the SAP
HANA environment. It consists of an SQL Parser, SQL
Script, MDX and Calculation Engine.
 SQL Processor: It processes the incoming queries or SQL
statements and manipulates (insert, delete, update) data
accordingly.
 Persistence Layer and Disk Logger: In in-memory
computing, RAM stores data which makes it volatile (can
erase due to system malfunctioning). Thus, the persistence
layer is responsible for taking data backups periodically and
store it permanently. It is known as Savepoints and by
default, the savepoint frequency is in every 5 minutes. The
data stores as log volumes and data volumes.
2. ERP Database
It has raw data residing in the ERP database which is sent to
the HANA database. Replication Agent (in ERP DB) and
Replication Server (in the computing engine) facilitates this
data movement. This component provides log-based data
provisioning.
3. SAP Business Object BI 4

This component involves tools like Data Services Server, Data
Services Designer, SBO BI Information Designer tool and Data
servers, etc. These components are mainly for job-based data
provisioning. Thus, they create and execute a job on data and
store the reports generated as a result. Therefore, it also acts as
a repository.
4. In-memory Computing Studio/SAP HANA

Studio
It is a user interfacing platform with an Eclipse-based tool
where you can manage, administer and manipulate data. You
can work on several views like Analytic View, Calculation View,
and Attribute View in SAP HANA.
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5. Clients
These are different reporting tools which connect to the
computing engine using specific drivers. You can create and
share reports using these client applications and tools.
Key Features of SAP HANA In-

Memory Computing
Let us discuss some key features and capabilities that in-
memory computing technology brings to SAP HANA:
1. Application development capabilities like web server,

JavaScript compatibility, SAP Fiori user experience,
Graphic Modeler, and Application lifecycle management.
2. Advanced analytical processing capabilities like spatial,
graphs, predictive analysis, smart search, text analytics,
streaming analytics, series data, and business functions.
3. Data integration and quality by virtue of data visualizations,
ETL and replicate, Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark
integration, and remote data sync.
4. Database management capabilities such as the columnar
store, multicore processing and parallelization, advanced
compression, multitenancy, multi-tier storage, data
modeling, administration and security, high availability and
disaster recovery.
Benefits of SAP HANA In-Memory
Computing
1. Reduce the complexity of data by bringing all your data
onto one platform; SAP HANA. It prevents data
redundancy, data footprint, hardware and IT cost. Also, it
enables quick real-time processing and analysis of real-time
data.
2. Run anywhere as it provides flexible deployment options to
the users. You can deploy the software on-premise or on-
cloud, on a public or private cloud that configures to various
applications and hardware easily.
3. Get real results which are closest to the reality of the market
and enables an enterprise to make informed decisions and
get better ROI. It also helps reduce the data management
costs for the company.
Want to Master in SAP HANA? – Check out the top SAP HANA
books
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 SAP HANA – Reporting
Reporting in SAP HANA –

Learn 3 Major Layers of
Reporting Framework
Now after learning about data extraction, data designing,
and modeling in SAP HANA, we will further move on to learn
about reporting in SAP HANA. It means how the data models
and information views are used by the end-users and analysts
to analyze data and create reports. We have provided a
comprehensive tutorial on how reporting is done in SAP
HANA.
Introduction to SAP HANA

Reporting
SAP HANA is an efficient in-memory database technology which
provides its users with platforms to model and design data as
per their business requirements. As an extension to the data
extraction and modeling capabilities, SAP HANA reporting tools
serve as an essential platform to present the information in proper
ways. The reports created by the reporting tools using processed
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data from SAP HANA are used by business analysts, business
managers, sales managers, and senior managers.
The report enables the people in authority to draw meaningful
insights and identify market trends to make strategies and
bolster their business in the present as well as for the future.
SAP HANA enables different kinds of reporting tools such

as SAP Lumira, Design Studio, Analysis Office, Crystal Reports,
Dashboards, Explorer, Web intelligence and even third-party
apps like MS Excel. Users can use both historical as well as
real-time data to create reports.
Connecting to the Reporting Sources
SAP HANA users or the users at the reporting end of the setup
can establish a connection to the other end in two ways:
 First is the direct way where reporting tools can connect

directly to the SAP HANA database. This direct connection
is an OLAP type connection. The tools which connect
directly to the SAP HANA system are Design Studio, SAP
Lumira, Business Explorer, Analysis of MS Office, Crystal
Reports, etc.
 The second way is an indirect way of connection. It is a
relational connection that establishes by creating a universe
using the Information Design Tool (IDT). The tools using
this method of connection to connect to the SAP HANA
database are Web intelligence tools, SAP Dashboards,
Crystal reports for the enterprise.
Explore the different sectors which use SAP HANA
Layers in Reporting Framework

The reporting framework is easy to understand when we divide
it into three primary layers;
1. Interaction languages
2. Connecting drivers
3. Reporting tools
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At the base of these three layers is the core SAP HANA system
database. From there, users can fetch data to use it in the
reporting tools. Let us learn about reporting architecture by
understanding each layer in detail.
1. Interaction Languages
This layer consists of all the query languages which are used in
querying database tables and objects from the reporting tools
during report execution. The languages used for this purpose in
SAP HANA reporting are MDX, SQL, and SQL ODBC.
 MDX: MDX language is used to access multi-dimensional data
objects instead of relational objects from the SAP HANA
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database. MDX stands for MultiDimensional Expressions.
This language is used to query data from MS Excel in SAP
HANA reporting. It is the only language that enables
hierarchy accessing from SAP HANA system.
 SQL: SQL is a standard database language for accessing data
from all kinds of platforms. In SAP HANA reporting, all the
reporting tools, which connect data through ODBC and
JDBC connections use SQL as the query language.
 SQL ODBC: The SQL ODBC connection accesses data from
the reporting tools that connect to the SAP HANA system
using a BICS connection. BICS stands for Business
Intelligence Consumer Services.
2. Connecting Drivers
The connecting drivers act as a mediator between the SAP
HANA database layer and the reporting tools. The drivers
transport the language queries from the reporting tool to the
database and take back the data. Every reporting tool connects
to the database through a specific connecting driver. SAP
HANA uses four main types of drivers as discussed below:
 ODBO (OLE DB for OLAP): The ODBO driver is a driver by

Microsoft for connecting MS Excel to the SAP HANA
database. This driver is specifically for multi-dimensional
reporting (multi-dimensional data stores), and it
communicates through MDX language.
 ODBC: The ODBC driver establishes relational database
connections between reporting tools and SAP HANA
database. Reporting tools like CR Report and Universe
layer (IDE) use ODBC driver that communicates via SQL.
ODBC stands for Open DataBase Connectivity.
 JDBC: JDBC stands for Java DataBase Connectivity.
JDBC driver is a Java-based connection service. We also
use it for relational reporting by tools like Explorer,
UNIX using IDT, CR Report. JDBC drivers communicate
with the database through SQL queries.
 BICS: The BICS driver is SAP propriety connecting
driver, which is used by those reporting tools that use
SQLDB language as the interaction language with SAP
database.
3. Reporting Tools
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The topmost layer is the layer of reporting tools. It is the SAP
Business Objects BI (4.0/4.2/4.3) reporting platform which
serves several reporting applications. The business users
analyze data and create reports to generate meaningful insights
using these applications. The SAP BO platform consists of
reporting applications such as SAP Lumira, Web Intelligence,
SAP BO Explorer, SAP BO Dashboards, Crystal Reports, and
SAP BO Universe.
Check out SAP HANA Books & master SAP HANA Technology
 SAP BO – Reporting Tools
SAP BusinessObjects
Reporting Tools – 9 Useful
Tools You Should Try
Today!
Previously, we learned about SAP HANA In-Memory
Computing; now, in this article, we will talk about the reporting
platform of SAP HANA known as SAP BusinessObjects BI 4
client tools. We will discuss the different SAP BusinessObjects
reporting tools that are available under the SAP
BusinessObjects BI 4 package. We will also learn about the
different kinds of connections that are established to connect
SAP HANA database with the reporting tools.
What are SAP BusinessObjects

Reporting Tools?
SAP BusinessObjects BI 4 is an SAP product that offers reporting
applications and tools that use data from SAP BW and SAP HANA
for reporting and analysis. The business objects reporting tool kit
includes tools for reporting and dashboarding. Business users
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can create reports and dashboards using these reporting
interfaces by utilizing the data from SAP HANA in the form of
tables or information views. The list of reporting tools available
under SAP BusinessObjects BI 4 package is given below:
 SAP Lumira
 Web Intelligence
 SAP Crystal Reports
 Design Studio
 Dashboard designer
 Universe Designer (IDT/UDT)
 BusinessObjects Explorer
 Analysis Office
 MS Excel
All of these reporting tools connect to the SAP HANA database
using individual connection drivers and database languages.
Also, they provide the user with data modeling, ETL and
reporting features. The reporting tools connect with SAP HANA
in two ways; either by a direct OLAP connection or through an
indirect semantic layer (universe creation) which is a relational
connection. All the tools use OLAP connection method except
for Web Intelligence, Dashboard designer and Crystal Report
Enterprise.
Presently, SAP HANA uses support package 7 of SAP

BusinessObjects BI 4.2 (SP7). SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3 is
expected to release in mid-2019.
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Reporting Tools in SAP
BusinessObjects BI Platform
In this section, we will learn in detail about the reporting tools
or applications that are a part of the SAP BusinessObjects BI
Platform (client tools package):
1. SAP Lumira
SAP Lumira is a self-service data visualization tool which
enables business users to connect directly to the SAP HANA
database, create visualizations, stories, reports, transform data
and do ad-hoc dashboarding. It uses the BICS connection
driver and SQLDBC as the language to connect to the SAP
HANA database.
2. SAP Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Reports is a Windows-based tool for creating
reports for printouts and publishing such as sales invoices,
sales orders report, etc. The reason behind the name Crystal
reports is because of its crystal clear and pixel perfect visuals.
Crystal reports use JDBC/ODBC connectors and SQL as the
interaction language to connect to the SAP HANA database.
3. SAP Design Studio
SAP Design Studio is a dashboard designing tool that enables
business users to create interactive reporting applications and
dashboards. It is an advance-level designing tool that connects
to the SAP HANA database using a BICS connection
communicating through SQLDBC language. Design Studio
requires complete compatibility and support with SAP
NetWeaver BW and SAP HANA platforms. It also provides the
capability to do server-side programming.
4. MS Excel
MS Excel is a popular Microsoft tool. Business users can
connect to the SAP HANA database through a direct OLAP
connection via an ODBO connector that communicates using
MDX language. Only MS Excel can access hierarchical data and
data in cube models, i.e., Analytic View and Calculation View in
SAP HANA.
5. Analysis Office (OLAP)
Analysis Office is a self-service analysis tool, especially for
multi-dimensional data analysis. It works on an OLAP type
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connection that establishes via BICS connector using SQLDB
language connected to the SAP HANA database or SAP BW.
Users can access OLAP data sources and integrate data from
more than one OLAP sources.
6. Explorer
Explorer is an information-discovery or exploring tool using
which users from all over the enterprise can access the
information and draw fresh insights from it. The Explorer tool
connects to the SAP HANA database through an OLAP
connection using a JDBC connector and SQL language.
7. Universe designer (IDT/UDT)
Universe Designer is a platform to design an intermediate layer
on top of the SAP HANA database in case of indirect
(relational) connections made with reporting tools like WebI
(Web intelligence) and Dashboard Designer. Universes are
semantic layers which transform the information from
relational and OLAP non-SAP data sources into business
specific information. The reporting tools use the data available
in the universe models instead of directly accessing the
database.
A universe can be designed in two ways, either by using
an Information Design Tool (IDT) or Universe Design Tool
(UDT). A universe is a semantic layer where we can manipulate
data in different ways like applying filters, parameters, creating
or deleting objects, business layer views, predefined queries,
aggregation, variable mapping, etc.
After a semantic layer or universe creates, it publishes on

the Business Objects Server Repository from where reporting tools
such as Web Intelligence and Dashboards use them. Both IDT
or UDT connects to the database using JDBC or ODBC
connections communicating through SQL.
Do You Know? – How to use SAP HANA on Azure
8. Web Intelligence
Web Intelligence is an advance-reporting tool having
capabilities for ad-hoc reporting, detailed reporting, using
query panels, etc. WebI access data from semantic layers
through universes created using IDT tool. The semantic layer
creates on top of a non-SAP data source. With IDT, you can
access multiple data sources, whereas, with UDT you can only
access one data source at a time.
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9. Dashboard designer
Dashboard Designer is a reporting tool in SAP BusinessObjects
BI4 package for designing dashboards. It provides users with
pre-designed dashboard templates which we can utilize in
creating static or dynamic charts and visualizations as a part of
the dashboard. Dashboard designer also connects to data
sources via universes.
Understand the Concept – SAP HANA Data Warehousing
Connections in SAP
BusinessObjects Reporting
Tools
All the SAP BusinessObjects reporting tools that we have
discussed above form either a relational or an OLAP connection
with the database layer. A relational connection is made when
the user needs to access conventional data tables. Relational
connections can only be made via IDT or UDT created semantic
layers.
On the contrary, if you need to access multi-dimensional data
cubes, then an OLAP connection is required. It is a direct
connection to the business layer of the data model as opposed
to the relational connection which is an indirect connection.
These connections enable a user to connect to the data tables or
information views in SAP HANA.
 SAP HANA – Relational Connection

 SAP HANA – OLAP Connection
Steps to Create OLAP

Connection in SAP HANA –
You can’t Afford to Miss
Out!
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After understanding the relational connection in SAP HANA, we
will learn about creating OLAP connections in SAP HANA.
First, we will understand what is OLAP connection and then
learn the process of creating a new OLAP connection in SAP
HANA.
Let’s begin with the tutorial.
OLAP Connection in SAP HANA

The OLAP connection connects the user directly to the SAP
HANA business layer to fetch data tables and information views
for reporting. The business users from various reporting tools
can establish a direct connection to the SAP HANA system and
access data views and models instantly. Reporting tools in SAP
HANA such as SAP Lumira, SAP Design Studio, Business
Explorer, Crystal reports, Analysis for OLAP use OLAP
connection to connect to SAP HANA. As OLAP connections are
direct connections, there is no need for creating
an intermediate universe layer.
How to Create an OLAP

connection in SAP HANA
In this tutorial, we will learn to create an OLAP connection
in SAP HANA using the Information Design Tool
(IDT) interface.
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Given below are the steps for establishing an OLAP connection:
Step 1: Initiating a new connection

Right-click on the project name. Click on New, then
select OLAP Connection.
Have you checked? – Steps to Connect Design Studio to SAP
HANA
Step 2: Naming your OLAP connection
Then, enter a name for the connection in Resource
Name column. You can also add a description for the
connection in the Description box. Click Next> to continue.
Step 3: Selecting the connection driver
Select the connection driver as SAP HANA Client from the list
of OLAP drivers. You can also select whether you want the list
to be Hierarchical list or a flat list. After that, click Next>.
Step 4: Entering connection parameters
Enter the parameters for the connection. You can select
the Authentication mode from three options.
1. Specified user name and password
2. BusinessObjects credential mapping
3. Single Sign-On
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Other columns that you have to fill are are Hostname, Instance
Number, User Name, Password, Language, Auto Reconnect,
Use SSL and Fetch Size. Then, click Next>.
Step 5: Specifying a cube
You can point at a specific cube to which you want to connect
directly, or you can select the “Do not specify a cube in the
connection” option.
Select a database cube from the list given below if you are
specifying a cube in the connection. Click on Finish once you
have made the selection.
Step 6: Confirming the connection

An OLAP connection with extension .cnx will be created. You
can see the name of the connection in the Local Project tab
under your project name. To confirm a successful connection,
you can click on Test Connection. A “Test Successful” message
will appear.
Step 7: Check the Connection details
You can also see the connection details on the General
Information tab. It will show information regarding the
connection such as:
 Network layer value
 Database name
 Catalog
 Cube
 Authentication mode
 Hostname
 Instance Number
 User Name
 Password
 Language
 Auto-Reconnect
 Use SSL
 Fetch size
Step 8: Publishing the connection

Now, we can publish this connection on the BO repository so
that users from different reporting tools can use this
connection later. To publish a connection, right-click on the
connection name from the Local Projects tab and select Publish
Connection to a Repository.
Step 9: Selecting the repository
The system will select the session with our connection
automatically. If you wish to make any changes, you can edit it.
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Select the repository from the list of connections in the next
dialog box. Then click on Finish to complete the process.
Step 10: Confirming connection publishing
Then, a prompt will appear saying “The connection was
published successfully”, confirming successful publishing of
connection into the selected repository.
You can select the secured OLAP connection stored with .cns
extension to fetch data tables and information views.
 SAP HANA – Integration with Excel

 SAP HANA – Crystal Reports (2011/13)
 SAP HANA – Crystal Reports (Enterprise 4.1)
 SAP HANA – Connect SAP Lumira
 SAP HANA – Dashboard Designer
 SAP HANA – Design Studio
 SAP HANA – Connect Web Intelligence
 SAP HANA – Universe Creation
 SAP HANA – Replication Modes
4 Essential Types of
Replication Modes in SAP
HANA System Replication
BY DATAFLAIR TEAM · MAY 1, 2019
Today, we are going to discuss the replication modes used in
SAP HANA system replication. We will be discussing three
main types of replication modes, i.e., Synchronous in-memory,
Synchronous, Synchronous full sync and Asynchronous
replication mode.
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So, without wasting any time, let’s start the tutorial.
Have you checked? – SQL data types in SAP HANA
Replication Modes in SAP HANA

Before we start discussing the three types of replication modes
in SAP HANA system replication, we must understand, what is
system replication in SAP HANA.
System replication is the process of replicating or copying an

SAP HANA database to a secondary location within the same or
to an external data center. The SAP database can continuously
and simultaneously synchronize with the primary system
besides replication. So, when you register a secondary system
to replicate your HANA database, you have to select a
replication mode to conduct in the system replication. System
replication is primarily to support disaster recovery and high
availability in SAP HANA.
There are primarily four types of replication modes for system
replication:
 Synchronous in-memory (syncmem)

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 Synchronous (sync)
 Synchronous (full sync)
 Asynchronous (async)
Let us learn about all four replication modes in detail, in the
sections to follow.
1. Synchronous In-memory Mode

The synchronous in-memory mode is the default replication
mode. The primary node waits for a confirmation message by
the secondary node upon receiving the log successfully. Until
then, the primary node/system commits no transactions.
In other words, the secondary system sends an

acknowledgment back to the primary system upon receiving
data successfully in its in-memory. The syncmem is an ideal
replication mode for solutions focusing on high availability and
disaster recovery. Both the nodes reside on the same data
center or in close proximity.
For successful data replication, all the services at both nodes

(primary and secondary) must have ACTIVE status. If any one
of the services fails, then this might result in data loss and
replication failure. No data loss occurs if all the services stay in
active mode during the log transfer.
One significant advantage of using this mode is that it offers

shortest transaction delays. It is because the primary node halts its
transactions until the secondary node sends an
acknowledgment. The standard wait time is 30 seconds. If the
primary node does not receive any acknowledgment from the
secondary system, it resumes the transactions without
replicating data. This ensures the shortest possible transaction
delays. Also, this process is performance-optimized as the
speed of disk I/O operations on the secondary system does not
affect the primary system’s performance. Thus, the primary
system doesn’t have to wait for any disk writing or I/O activity
moving to the secondary system.
2. Synchronous Mode
In the synchronous mode of system replication, the primary
node waits and halts its transactions till the time the secondary
node sends an acknowledgment. The acknowledgment
indicates the acceptance of the data log and persistence of the
log volumes on its disk. The main advantage of using sync
mode is that it ensures and maintains consistency between the two
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nodes. The primary node ensures that it will not commit any
transaction before the replication on the secondary node
completes.
The waiting time of primary node for receiving an
acknowledgment from secondary node is 30 seconds. It
resumes its transactions without completing the replication
process if no “receive” message arrives from the secondary
system in 30 secs. Also, this process is only prone to data loss
when the two nodes disconnect during an ongoing replication.
However, no data loss occurs when the connection is still intact
but the primary node has resumed executing its transactions.
This replication mode is preferable in a high availability system
replication setup, where both the nodes reside on the same data
center.
3. Synchronous Full Sync Mode

In addition to the normal sync mode, another mode was
introduced with SPS08 named full sync. The full sync mode
ensures complete data protection, i.e., zero data loss because it
blocks the transactions on the primary node until replication
successfully completes on the secondary node. The operations
on the primary node are blocked until the secondary node
sends an acknowledgment indicating that it has received the
data logs and persisted the log volumes on the disk. The full
sync mode of replication is ideal for multi-tier system
replication setups as their primary concern is data security and
protection. Full sync mode guarantees zero data loss and thus
should be used by systems using tier 2 and tier 3 nodes.
To activate the full sync mode in your HANA system, the
parameter ‘enable_full_sync’ (in the global.ini file of system
replication section) should be Enabled. Also, to completely
activate the full sync mode, the connection to the secondary
node should be established.
4. Asynchronous Mode
The asynchronous mode, as the name suggests, is where the
primary and secondary nodes work asynchronously. In this
mode, the primary node does not halt its transactions until the
secondary node sends acknowledgment or confirmation.
Instead, the primary node commits a transaction that has been
written on the log file of the primary system and sent to the
secondary node. It then sends redo log buffers to the secondary
system asynchronously.
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The asynchronous mode is the best system replication mode in
terms of performance as there are no transaction delays and it
maintains data consistency throughout the process. Also, it is not
necessary for replication mode to wait for the I/O operations on
the secondary node. However, this mode is more vulnerable to
data loss as compared to other modes because unexpected
failovers and unplanned takeovers may cause data loss.
 SAP HANA – Data Compression Techniques

 SAP HANA – Sidecar Scenario
SAP HANA Sidecar Scenario

– An Ultimate Guide of Just
7 Mins!
After completing data compression techniques in SAP HANA, we
will move forward to learn a more complex topic; SAP HANA
Sidecar. What comes to your mind, when you see the word
sidecar? A cocktail filled glass? Well sorry, but this tutorial does
not have any connection with that cocktail.
The concept of SAP HANA Sidecar is as catchy as its name. So,
without wasting any time, let’s start our tutorial.
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SAP HANA Sidecar Overview
SAP HANA Sidecar is an SAP HANA platform serving as a
secondary database and computing platform to an already
existing system with its own traditional database. Its approach
uses SAP HANA system for storage and computational
capabilities to carry out operations related to the data and
database objects of other systems.
Primarily, SAP ECC (SAP ERP Central Component) system

uses SAP HANA Sidecar as a secondary database. The
traditional database replicates its data into the SAP HANA
database from the SAP ECC systems. The replicated data is
read directly from the HANA database via a secondary database
connection that is established to run reports in the SAP ECC
system.
SAP HANA Sidecar Architecture
As you can see in the simple illustration of SAP HANA Sidecar’s
architecture, it involves some basic elements.
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The SAP Business Suite or SAP ECC system stores its business
modules and complete data set into a traditional database.
Now, SLT (SAP Landscape Transformation) tool replicates
these module objects or data tables into the SAP HANA system
serving as the Sidecar. The SLT tool is capable of doing real-
time data replication. Once, the data replicates into SAP HANA
database with the help of SLT, reports running on SAP ECC
system can read data directly from SAP HANA database (via a
secondary database connection), instead of processing it from
the traditional database. In addition to this, other BI and
reporting tools can also use this data for analytical and
reporting purposes.
Use Cases of SAP HANA Sidecar
Below are the four important use cases of SAP HANA Sidecar:
1. SAP ECC system is a part of SAP Business Suit and contains

business-related modules such as profitability analysis
module, sales, purchasing, COPA, material analysis, etc. We
replicate the data from these modules into the SAP HANA
system. Now, instead of reading data from traditional
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databases which are generally slow, SAP ECC system users
read data from HANA database for reporting purposes as it
is quick by virtue of its in-memory database.
2. The logics created for reporting in SAP ECC can be tried
first on SAP HANA’s native modeling tools like SAP HANA
Information Modeler.
3. We can test SAP HANA as a tool to decide to buy a full-
service version of it and make SAP HANA their primary
database. Using SAP HANA Sidecar as a secondary
database allows the customer to assess its performance and
capabilities. Upon realizing a performance improvement,
customers buy a full-fledged enterprise version of SAP
HANA. Then, replicate their entire database on it to make it
fully operational.
4. We can also create reports from the SAP Business Objects
reporting tools utilizing the models created on SAP HANA
before using them on SAP ECC.
Limitations of SAP HANA Sidecar
Besides all the advantages and applications of SAP HANA
Sidecar, there are a few limitations of this approach:
 It requires SLT whenever we need a change or update in the

HANA database. Also, there is a limitation of the
requirement of real-time data loading with SAP HANA
Sidecar.
 We can load data into the SAP HANA database only from
other databases using either ABAP custom code or SLT or
Data Service tool.
 Custom ABAP programs are necessary to avail HANA

capabilities as these programs are performance optimized
on SAP HANA. The ABAP programs are must for data
retrieval, data updates, data insertion, etc., as we optimize
them to run SQLSCRIPTS.
 HANA hardware requirements demand to have SUSE
LINUX SP11.
 SAP HANA – Security Guide

257
 SAP HANA – License Management
 SAP HANA – License Keys
 SAP HANA – Authorization
 SAP HANA – Authentication Methods
 SAP HANA – Auditing
 SAP HANA – SQL Statements
 SAP HANA – SQL Explain Plan
 SAP HANA – SQL Operators
 SAP HANA – SQL Data Types
 SAP HANA – SQL Synonyms
 SAP HANA – SQL Expressions
 SAP HANA – SQL Sequences
 SAP HANA – SQL Triggers
 SAP HANA – SQL Stored Procedures
 SAP HANA – Data Profiling
 SAP HANA – Books
 SAP HANA – Career Opportunities
 SAP HANA Vs SAP S/4
 SAP HANA – Case Studies
SAP HANA Interview Questions
 SAP HANA Interview Questions – 1
Q.1 What do you understand by SAP HANA?

Ans. SAP HANA is an in-memory database that encompasses
special software and hardware components used for a
centralized ERP system and business application development.
It uses real-time data processing/computing engine which
fetches data directly from the in-memory (main memory/RAM)
speeding up the data retrieval operations.
Q.2 Why is SAP HANA unique?

Ans. SAP HANA proves to be a unique tool for users in many
ways. The reasons for uniqueness are:
 SAP HANA is the first technology ever to be used for both
OLTP and OLAP application processing.
 It provides query processing environment for structured as
well as unstructured data. That is, for both relational
database (tables) and less structured (texts, graphs)
respectively.
 The multi-core processing engines of the SAP HANA
system process data parallelly. The parallel processing is
done within different columns of the same database. Using
a columnar database, the system optimizes data structure
and eases storing large data by compressing it.
Q.3 What are the components comprising SAP HANA

technology?
Ans. SAP HANA is a technology that is a collection of different
tools and technologies that work in tandem to bring it in
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existence. There are four technologies which collectively make
SAPA HANA:
 SAP HANA DB: It is the core in-memory database which is
central to the functioning of SAP HANA.
 SAP HANA Studio: It has the modeling tools for data
handling and management.
 SAP HANA Appliance: It is the Vendor hardware in which

we install SAP HANA software.
 SAP HANA Application Cloud: It is the cloud-based
infrastructure ensuring the functioning of appliances.
Q.4 Which platforms SAP HANA supports?
Ans. SAP HANA supports various platforms:
 Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, 8, Server 2008 (32-bit)
 Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 10, Server 2008 / R2 (64-bit)
 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 (64-bit)
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 (64-bit)
 Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Q.5 What do you understand from in-memory computing? What
is its significance in SAP HANA?
Ans. In the in-memory computing, a huge amount of data as
the information is stored in the Random-Access Memory
(RAM) instead of external storage disks. This technology
replaces the traditional way of storing data in disks and uses
relational database management methods to fetch and process
the data. In-memory computing technology is much cheaper
and faster than the traditional database system.
Applications in SAP HANA are developed in close association

with the database and there is close to no data movement
involved from the database to the system. SAP HANA keeps a
primary copy of the data ready in in-memory storage which
results in data access and processing for ad-hoc reporting,
analysis of data in real-time, and quick query response. Also, it
reduces data complexity, data redundancy, data footprint,
hardware and IT costs.
Understand the concept of SAP HANA In-memory Computing in

detail
Q.6 What are the main components of the SAP HANA environment?
Ans. The primary components of the SAP HANA environment
are:
In-memory computing engine: This is a component residing within
the Index Server. It has got several sub-components such
as Planning Engine, Session Management, Disk Storage, Request
Processing and Execution Control, Relational Engine, etc.
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Database: This has raw data residing in the ERP database which
is sent to the HANA database. Replication Agent (in ERP DB)
and Replication Server (in the computing engine) provisions this
data movement. This component provides log-based data
provisioning.
SAP Business Objects BI 4: This component includes tools

like SBO BI Information Designer tool, Data Services Designer,
Data Services Server, and Data servers, etc. We use the
components for job-based data provisioning. They design and
implement a job on data and store the reports created in the
form of a result. Therefore, it also acts as a repository.
SAP HANA Studio: This is a user interfacing platform which an
Eclipse-based tool where we can manage, administer and
manipulate data. We can work on several views like Attribute,
Analytic, and Calculation.
Clients: These are miscellaneous reporting tools which we can
connect to the computing engine by utilizing specific drivers.
We can design and share reports by utilizing these tools and
client applications.
Note: This question is very important for your SAP HANA
interview. Prepare it nicely.
Q.7 What is the function of a Replication server?
Ans. The replication server is responsible for managing the
replication of table data as well as metadata from the data
source.
Q.8 What is a persistence layer?
Ans. The persistence layer is mainly responsible for processing
data backups periodically and storing it permanently. This is
known as “Savepoints” and by default, the savepoint frequency
is in every 5 minutes. The data stores as log volumes and data
volumes.
Q.9 What are the architectural components of SAP HANA?
Ans. The SAP HANA system consists of different components
which together makes its system architecture.
Index server: The Index Server is the main server in SAP
HANA. It has the data storage and processing engine. Queries
in different languages like SQL and MDX are received in the
index server. Then, the queries are processed by different
components and servers within it. Index server also manages
the transactions and authentications. It also has a component
that manages transaction logs and selectively stores data.
In addition, the index server is further divided into smaller

components like relational data engine, session manager, authorization
management, planning engine, calc engine, and persistence layer.
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Name server: Name server maintains the information of the
topology or landscape of SAP HANA system environment. It
contains information related to the name and location of the
HANA components. This server manages and monitors the
topology of all the distributed servers or nodes. It increases the
processing time by decreasing the re-indexing process as it
keeps the information on what data stores in which server.
Pre-processor server: Pre-processor server is a text analyzing
server which processes textual data. The service provided by
this component is used during text search. Whenever a request
initiates, this server processes textual data and provides it to
the user.
SAP HANA Studio Repository: The repository stores
information related to the newly released updates. We can
update the old version to the latest ones with the help of this.
XS Engine: It facilitates communication between the external
applications (Java and HTML based) and SAP HANA system via
HTTP/HTTPS in a web browser. The XS Engine converts the
system’s state from the persistence model stored in the
database into the consumption model for clients.
Note: Questions related to SAP HANA architecture are very
crucial for your interview preparation.
Q.10 What is the most important component in SAP HANA
architecture?
Ans The Index Server is the most important component of SAP
HANA architecture. It has the data storage (having the actual
data) component and a processing engine. Queries in different
languages like SQL and MDX are received in the index server.
These queries are processed by different components and
servers within the index server.
Q.11 Name the components of an index server.
Ans There are six main components of an index server:
 Relational data engine
 Connection and Session manager
 Authorization manager
 Planning engine
 Calc engine
 Persistence layer
Q.12 What is sizing in SAP HANA?
Ans. Sizing in SAP HANA refers to determining the hardware
requirements for specific SAP HANA installation requirements.
Hardware components important for sizing point of view
are CPU, memory (RAM) and hard disk. The most crucial task in
sizing is to estimate the size of the server best suited for the
business user’s requirements.
In SAP HANA, we can perform sizing in three ways:
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 Using Quick Sizer tool
 Using DB script
 Using ABAP report
Q.13 What are row and column storage in SAP HANA?
Ans. Data in the SAP HANA database stores in two ways; row
storage, and column storage.
Row storage is the method of storing data in a horizontal
fashion. It is similar to how data is stored traditionally in disk
databases. However, there is one main difference between the
SAP HANA row storage and traditional row storage. That is, in
SAP HANA, data is stored in rows in the main memory and in
traditional databases, data is stored in rows in the disk storage.
Column storage method stores data in a columnar fashion

(linear/ vertical). Data is compressed efficiently in column
stores. It improves SAP HANA’s performance by optimizing
both the read and write operations on data. Data is stored in
the column storage area which is divided into two sections;
Main storage and Delta Storage.
Q.14 What are the different perspectives in SAP HANA Studio?
Ans. The SAP HANA Studio contains different perspectives
which we can choose to work on. Some commonly used
perspectives are:
 SAP HANA Administration Console
 SAP HANA Modeler
 Application Development
 Lifecycle Management
 SAP HANA Development
 ABAP
 BW Modeling
Don’t forget to check the complete explanation of SAP HANA studio
Q.15 What is SAP HANA System Monitor?
Ans. Using the system monitor in SAP HANA Studio, we can
administer and monitor the system’s health and availability of
SAP HANA components. Also, using the system monitor, we
can access the system’s details and configurations and the
services offered by different SAP HANA components.
We can monitor several aspects through the SAP HANA system
monitor such as the alerts, disk space, log disks, trace disk, data
disk, memory, performance, volume, etc. Thus, it is convenient to
manage individual aspects, tasks, and components.
Q.16 What all administrative operations can we achieve from the
Administration Console?
Ans. A number of administrative tasks can be performed in the
SAP HANA Studio such as; regulating (start/stop) services,
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monitoring the system, audit policy, and security configuration, user
management and authorization, backup and recovery, memory
management, license management, alerts and messages, etc.
All of these tasks can be performed from different tabs present
in the administration console of SAP HANA Studio such as:
 Overview (monitor and general management)
 Alerts (position and view the details of the alerts)
 Performance (evaluates the performance of the system for
the activities happening in the database)
 System Information (access system information files and
queries)
 Landscape (check of all running services)
 Volumes (details of the logs and data volumes)
 Trace Configuration (includes the traces set up
information)
 Configuration (includes the information on system
configuration files)
 Diagnosis Files (includes the system log files)
Q.17 What is SAP HANA Information Modeler?
Ans. Information Modeler lets us design information views or
models on top of SAP HANA database using tables in it. Such
models are created to serve a business logic and operation.
They are generated directly on top of the HANA database layer.
The information modeler provides the interface and tools to
select attributes and measures from the database tables so that
the user can create multiple information views using the
physical tables of transactional data stored in the databases.
The information views are a logical representation of the data
which can be further published or consumed for analytical
purposes. Information modeling implements on the SAP HANA
Modeler perspective of SAP HANA Studio.
Grasp all the aspects of SAP HANA Information Modeler
Q.18 What is the difference between Information Modeler and
Information Composer?
Ans. The two differ from each other based on target users. SAP
HANA Information Modeler is for technical users with
extensive data modeling requirements and technical
knowledge. They can perform a range of advanced operations
related to modeling such as creating attribute views, analytic
views, calculation views, processing models, data management and
administration, data loading and import/export tables.
Whereas, information composer is made for non-technical
users who are not IT and data science experts (with no
database or modeling knowledge). The information composer
is so designed that it aids non-technical users with user-
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friendly interface, animations, hints, and suggestions for
modeling and reporting.
Q.19 What are the three types of information views?
Ans. The three types of information views are:
1. Attribute view
Attribute view uses attributes, or the non-measurable, non-
quantifiable data to design views and models according to the
business logic. Thus, the data used in attribute view is referred
to as ‘Master data’ as it is used as reference information in other
views (analytic and calculation). The tables in attribute view do
not contain any facts or measure.
2. Analytic view
In an analytic view, we can create star schemas, having a
central transaction or fact table and multiple dimension tables
linked to it via primary keys. The measures are contained only
in the central transaction table which can be grouped or joined
with multiple dimension tables.
3. Calculation view
Calculation view is an advanced model which uses both
attribute and analytic view elements in it to make a complex
data model following complex business logic.
It gives us the freedom to combine and create from a range of

options like tables, column views, analytic views, attribute view,
etc. It enables us to do multidimensional reporting using
measures and dimensions from different sources.
Note: This one is very popular SAP HANA interview question.

Learn the steps to create a calculation view in SAP HANA
Q.20 What are the types of SAP HANA engines?
Ans. There are three types of SAP HANA engines:
 Join Engine: We use the join engine every time an attribute
view is created or used, or a join condition is applied in a
native SQL command.
 OLAP Engine: We use the OLAP engine in the creation of
analytic views. We use it only when attributes are used in
the analytical view and no calculation is done. If operations
like calculations, counters, restricted measures are used
then other engines like a calculation engine is used along
with the OLAP engine.
 Calculation Engine: We use the calculation engine in
calculation along with being used in other views like
analytical and attribute view whenever they apply complex
logic and calculation operations.
Q.21 Explain the different types of joins in SAP HANA.
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Ans. The types of joins in SAP HANA divides into two
categories; Standard database joins and Specific joins.
1. Standard Database Joins
Inner join: The inner join joins the left and right tables with only
matching records. That is, only that part in both tables that
coincides displays. Inner joins are very useful while creating
information models as we can use it to join tables in attribute
views.
Left outer join: The left outer join combines the entire left table
with only the matching records from the right table. If some the
engine can’t find any records matching for the left columns in
the right table then it returns NULL at those places.
Right outer join: The right outer join combines the entire right
table with the matching contents in the left table. We rarely use
the right outer join in real scenarios. It returns NULL in place
of values which do not find an association with the records in
the right table.
Full outer join/Union: A full outer join combines all the records
from both left and right tables irrespective of the matching
conditions. The cells which are not able to find any association
with the other table are left NULL.
2. SAP HANA Specific Joins
Referential join: Referential joins are like inner joins but with a
condition of keeping the referential integrity intact.
We use it whenever there is a primary key and foreign key
association between two tables. And, referential integrity is
when for every value in the foreign key column, there is a
reference value in the primary key column of the master data
table. From a performance point of view, referential joins are
better than inner joins. Referential joins are necessary for star
schemas as long as referential integrity maintains.
Text join: Text join provides a description of text records in the
language specific to the user. If user A selects the language as
German, then all the details regarding the table and columns
will display to the user in German. We use text joins for joining
a text table with a master data table.
Note: This one is the favorite SAP HANA interview question of
most interviewees.
Don’t miss the Joins in SAP HANA Tutorial
Q.22 What are analytic privileges in SAP HANA?
Ans. Analytic privileges in SAP HANA are data access
restrictions which define and assigns to selected users. They
work as data security tools for SAP HANA users and clients.
Analytic privileges provide row-level data security to SAP
HANA users on contrary to object-level security which the
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object privileges assign. Thus, it restricts users to see only a
selected section of data from the entire data set.
Q.23 What are the packages in SAP HANA?
Ans. Packages are folders which contains all the modeling
related data objects. We call it a package because it can contain
all the information modeling data in a complete package and
we can use it for transferring (Import/Export) purposes. The
design-time objects such as information views, sub-packages,
procedure, analytic privilege reside in a package.
There are two types of packages:
 Structural
 Non-structural
Q.24 What are schemas in SAP HANA?
Ans. The database elements of a system reside in the Catalog
node of SAP HANA Modeler. The relational SAP HANA
database divides into sub-databases within the Catalog node as
schemas. Schemas are like containers containing all the
different elements or objects of a relational database. It
categorizes important information about a database into
folders such as indexes, tables, views, triggers, sequences,
procedures, functions, etc.
Do you know? – How to Create Schemas in SAP HANA
Q.25 Difference between OLAP and relational connection to SAP HANA.
Ans. A relational connection establishes when the user needs to
access conventional data tables. Relational connections can
only create via IDT or UDT created semantic layers.
On the contrary, if we need to access multi-dimensional data
cubes, then we need an OLAP connection. It is a direct
connection to the business layer of the data model as opposed
to the relational connection which is an indirect connection.
These connections enable a user to connect to the data tables or
information views in SAP HANA.
Q.26 What is referential join? Explain referential integrity.
Referential join is the default join type in HANA modeling. A
referential join is very similar to an inner join. The only
difference between the two is referential integrity must be
ensured in the case of referential join otherwise it cannot be
formed. Referential join forms between a fact table (transaction
data or analytic view) and a master data table (attribute view).
Every master data table has a primary key column which acts as
a foreign key in the fact table.
We use referential joins whenever there is a primary key and
foreign key association between two tables. And, referential
integrity is when for every value in the foreign key column,
there is a reference value in the primary key column of the
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master data table. From a performance point of view,
referential joins are better than inner joins. Referential joins
are necessary for star schemas as long as referential integrity
maintains.
Q.27 What are SAP Business Objects BI 4 reporting tools?
Ans. SAP Business Objects BI 4 client tools are SAP products
that offer reporting applications and tools that use data from
SAP BW and SAP HANA for reporting and analysis purpose.
The list of reporting and dashboarding tools available under
SAP Business Objects BI 4 package is:
 SAP Lumira
 Web Intelligence
 SAP Crystal Reports
 Design Studio
 Dashboard designer
 Universe Designer (IDT/UDT)
 BusinessObjects Explorer
 Analysis Office
 MS Excel
Have a look at the working of all SAP BusinessObjects Reporting
Tools
Q.28 Difference between Catalog and Content node.
The contents of an SAP HANA system (database) majorly
divides into two folders; Catalog and Content folder.
Catalog folder: The Catalog node acts as a data directory for SAP
HANA system and keeps structured information of all the
physical objects in HANA. It primarily contains schemas and
each of them divides into different folders like Column Views,
EPM Models, Functions, Indexes, Procedures, Sequences, Tables,
Triggers and Views.
Content folder: The Content node contains the design-time
repository objects such as the information models created in
SAP HANA Modeler. Packages contain the information models.
Thus, the Content node mainly contains packages created by
users. Within each package are the Attribute Views, Analytic
Views, Calculation Views, Analytic Privileges and Decision
tables created by a HANA user.
Q.29 What are the ways to create a table in SAP HANA?
There are two ways of creating tables in SAP HANA. One
method is a command line method, where we use the SQL console
to write an SQL script and create a table. The second method is
a GUI based method where we use a graphical interface to create
a table.
Must Learn – Steps to Create Tables in SAP HANA
Q.30 Types of connecting drivers used by SAP HANA reporting tools?
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SAP HANA uses four main types of drivers as discussed below:
ODBO (OLE DB for OLAP): The ODBO driver is a driver by

Microsoft for connecting MS Excel to the SAP HANA database.
This driver is specifically for multi-dimensional reporting (multi-
dimensional data stores) and it communicates through MDX
language.
ODBC: ODBC stands for Open DataBase Connectivity. The
ODBC driver is for establishing relational database connections
between reporting tools and SAP HANA database. Reporting
tools like CR Report and Universe layer (IDE) use ODBC driver
that communicates via SQL.
JDBC: JDBC driver is a Java-based connection service. We also
use it for relational reporting by reporting tools like Explorer,
UNX using IDT, CR Report. JDBC drivers communicate with the
database through SQL queries. JDBC stands for Java DataBase
Connectivity.
BICS: The BICS driver is SAP propriety connecting driver.
Reporting tools that use SQLDB language as the interaction
language with SAP database uses BICS driver.
 SAP HANA Interview Questions – 2
Q.1 What are the ways in which you can connect to reporting
tools from SAP HANA?
Ans. SAP HANA users or the users at the reporting end of the
setup can have a connection established to the other end in two
ways:
 First is the direct way where reporting tools can connect
directly to the SAP HANA database. This direct connection
is an OLAP type connection. The reporting tools which
connect directly to the SAP HANA system are Design Studio,
SAP Lumira, Business Explorer, Analysis of MS Office, Crystal
Reports, etc.
 The second way is an indirect way of connection. It is a
relational connection established by creating a universe
using the Information Design Tool (IDT). The reporting
tools using this method of connection to SAP HANA
database are Web intelligence tools, SAP Dashboards, Crystal
reports for enterprise.
Q.2 What are delivery units?

Ans. A delivery unit is a single entity or unit that maps multiple
packages to it. Packages are mapped in specific delivery units.
Delivery units are sent to other systems as a single unit.
The delivery unit import/export packages contain relevant
database objects that are used for content delivery.
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Q.3 What do you understand by Business Objects Universes in
SAP HANA?
Ans. There are two ways in which the reporting tools can
connect to SAP HANA. One way is a direct OLAP connection
and another is an indirect relational connection.
In the relational connection type, reporting tools fetch data
from a universe layer instead of connecting directly to SAP
HANA. Thus, SAP Business Objects Universe acts like a middle
layer between reporting tools and SAP HANA. A universe contains
data foundation layer which holds data tables with joins and
conditions are applied to them (much like information views).
Reporting tools such as WebI, Crystal Reports for Enterprise
and Dashboard designer use Universe as an intermediate layer
to connect to SAP HANA. Although, the option of connecting
directly to SAP HANA is available in the current versions of
Web Intelligence.
Must Learn – How to Create Universe in SAP HANA using IDT

Q.4 What are set operators? How many of them are supported in SAP
HANA?
Ans. You can use set operators to combine multiple queries and
return a single result set in output.
 Operator: UNION
Description: This operator is used to combine the outputs
of two or more SQL select statements or query expressions.
 Operator: UNION ALL
Description: This operator is used to combine all the
outputs of two or more SQL select statements or query
expressions. It also includes all duplicate rows.
 Operator: INTERSECT
Description: This operator is used to combine the outputs
of two or more SQL select statements or query expressions
and return all the common rows.
 Operator: EXCEPT
Description: This operator takes the result from the first
query, removes the rows selected by the second query and
gives the output. It is also referred to as MINUS.
Q.5 Which data types are supported in SAP HANA SQL
scripting?
Ans. There are eight categories of data types in SQL. Mostly, all
of the data types can be used in SAP HANA.
Binary data type: We can assign a binary data type to the data
values that store binary data bytes.
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Boolean data type: The Boolean data type is for the values that
store Boolean values. The Boolean values are TRUE,
FALSE and UNKNOWN (also known as NULL). This data type
can also return 1 for TRUE and 0 for FALSE if the Boolean type
is not supported.
Numeric data type: The numeric data types are for the values to
store numeric information in different ways. Each data type has
a minimum and maximum value and any value less than the
minimum or greater than the maximum is not supported.
Characteristic string data type: The character string data type is for
such values that store values containing character strings.
There are two main types of character string data
types, VARCHAR and NVARCHAR.
Datetime data type: The values of the datetime data type stores
date and time information.
Large Object (LOB) data type: The values of LOB i.e. large object
data type contains a large amount of data like images or text
documents.
Multi-valued data type: The multi-valued data type is for the value
that stores a collection of values sharing the same data type.
The multi-valued data type values are also known as nested data
types. SAP HANA supports all basic data types in multi-valued
data type values such as FLOAT, DECIMAL, VARCHAR,
INTEGER. It does not support the complex ones like TEXT,
LOB and spatial data types.
Spatial data type: The spatial data type is used for the values
which store spatial data regarding spatial objects like points,
lines or polygons, etc.
Explore the features of SQL Data Types in SAP HANA
Note: Data types questions are very popular in SAP HANA
interview. Prepare it well.
Q.6 What is the difference between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR in SAP
HANA SQL?
Ans. Both VARCHAR and NVARCHAR are numeric data types
in SQL used in SAP HANA.
 VARCHAR
The VARCHAR(<n>) data type assigns a character string of
variable length. It contains only the 7-bit ASCII character strings.
The length of the character string is <n> and has a limit of a
value between 1 and 5000.
If you use it in a DDL query, then n is 1 by default.
Whereas, if you use it in a DML query then n is considered as

5000 (if you specify no length). In a DML query, n is the length
of the string in characters.
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 NVARCHAR
The NVARCHAR(<n>) defines a character set string of a
variable length of Unicode characters. <n> is an integer
defining the length of the string in characters. The value of <n>
can be anywhere between 1 and 5000.
If the value of <n> is not specified in a DDL query, then it is 1
by default.
If the value of <n> i.e. the length of the string in characters is

not specified in a DML query, then it is 5000 by default.
Q.7 Explain the relation between OPERATOR_ID and
PARENT_OPERATOR_ID columns in an explain plan table.
Ans. Explain plans tells you how SQL statements get executed.
They are useful for troubleshooting and performance
optimization of SQL statements.
 OPERATOR_ID shows on which rank in the order of
statement execution does a particular operator lies.
 PARENT_OPERATOR_ID is the number/rank of the statement
through which a particular statement is succeeding. For
instance, if parent_operator_id of statement 2 is 1 that
means statement 2 executes after statement 1. This ID is
useful to understand the where or join clauses where
certain statements follow one statement.
Do you know? – How to use Explain Plans in SAP HANA Studio
Q.8 How can you perform data profiling in SAP HANA?
Ans. SQL data profiling is a process of refining the data and
analyzing it to get a better understanding of it. The main
purpose behind data profiling is to check data coming from
different sources, identify problems in it and fix the issues to
maintain data quality.
In SAP HANA Studio, we can conduct profiling for data in

tables or data in views.
1. Open SAP HANA Studio and login to your HANA system.
2. Expand a schema in the Catalog tab and select a table or view.

3. Right-click on the name of the view or table and select the
option Open Data Preview.
In the data preview window, you get three tabs; Raw Data,
Distinct values, and Analysis tab.
Using the Distinct Values tab, you can perform basic data
profiling. On this window, you will get a list of available objects
from your selected data source. You can select one object from
the list, and it will show all the details of it.
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For instance, you can see the list of items in the object
COUNTRYNAME, in the form of a bar chart representation,
a statistics box at the bottom, the count and distribution
percentage for the occurrence of each value. This helps in a
detailed analysis of the data from the source.
Also, you can select an item and view its data type, native data
type, column precision, column scale and row count in the statistics
box.
You can get each data column available in the list profiled by
clicking on its name.
Learn the concept and benefits of SAP HANA SQL Data Profiling
Q.9 What are JSON object expressions in SAP HANA?
Ans. The JSON Object expressions used in SAP HANA generate
a JSON object. A typical JSON object has two elements; Key
and Value.
A “<key>” is a string literal which must be in double quotes “”
always. And a <value> is an expression specific to a key and can
be a simple value (string, integer), JSON object enclosed in {}
braces or an array []. One can only use JSON object expressions
while working with the JSON collection tables. The reference
statements of JSON Object expressions are SELECT, INSERT
INTO, UPDATE or use with operators like +,-,/,*.
Example:
{“firstname”:’Aditya’, “lastname”:’Kapoor’, “age”:45, “address”:
{ ‘street’: ‘Flat no.512, wing B, Leela Residency’, ‘city’: ‘Mumbai’
}}
Q.10 What are SQL sequences in SAP HANA? What is the difference
between CURRVAL and NEXTVAL?
Ans. SQL sequences are integer values generated automatically
on executing a SQL statement. A sequence can be any trail of
numbers like 100, 101, 102, and so on. You can use SQL
sequences in SAP HANA databases and applications where
there is a need to generate a unique ID on every new record
entered in a database.
The sequence statement can return two values, current value or
next value. When you use the keyword CURRVAL, then you will
get the current value of a sequence as a result. But, when you
use keyword NEXTVAL, you will get the succeeding value (next
value) of the current value.
Q.11 What are SQL synonyms in SAP HANA? Explain its types.
Ans. SQL synonyms are alternate names given to a database
object residing in a particular schema in SAP HANA. That is,
synonyms are an alias of database objects. The SQL synonyms
are not database objects in themselves but are just used as
pointers to the real database objects. In SAP HANA, we can
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create synonyms for several database objects like tables, views,
procedures, table functions, sequences, scalar functions, etc.
There are two types of SQL synonyms:
Public Synonyms: The PUBLIC schema owns public synonyms in

an SAP HANA database. All the SAP HANA users can access
objects by referring to public synonyms. The owner of the
application creates a synonym for database objects like tables,
views, packages, etc. Those synonyms are available for use by
other users to access the database objects.
Syntax:
1. CREATE PUBLIC SYNONYM <synonymname> for <sourceobjectname>;
Private Synonyms: As opposed to public synonyms, we can use
private synonyms only within a schema. Thus, only the owner
of the database schema can use private synonyms for
referencing and hiding the original object names.
Syntax:
1. CREATE SYNONYM <synonymname> for <sourceobjectname>;
Don’t forget to check out the concept behind SAP HANA SQL
Synonyms
Q.12 Why are triggers used in SAP HANA?
Ans. We can use SQL triggers in SAP HANA for several
purposes such as:
 Auditing operations
 Synchronous replication of data tables
 To store information on accessing the table
 Security authorization processes
 To prevent invalid transactions
 Event logging processes
 To enforce referential integrity
 To automatically generate derived column values
Q.13 Can you explain the three types of SQL statements used in SAP
HANA?
Ans. SAP HANA support three types of SQL statements; DML,
DDL, and DCL.
1. Data Manipulation Language (DML)
We use data manipulation language (DML) within schema
objects to manipulate and manage data in them. Generally used
DML keywords are SELECT (to retrieve data from
database), INSERT (to add data into a data table)
and UPDATE (to update data that already exists in a table).
2. Data Definition Language (DDL)
DDL statements and keywords define the structure of data in
databases and schemas. Commonly used DDL keywords
are CREATE (creates objects in the database), ALTER (alters the
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database structure), DROP (deletes or drops objects from the
database).
3. Data Control Language (DCL)
The DCL statements control user access and privileges to the
database. Commonly used DCL keywords are GRANT (to give
access privilege to database to the users), and REVOKE (to take
back the access privileges given using GRANT command).
Don’t miss the SAP HANA SQL Statements Tutorial
Q.14 What is the different between Synchronous, Synchronous in-
memory, and Synchronous full-sync replication modes?
Ans. Here is the different working of three replication modes:
Synchronous mode: In the synchronous mode of system
replication, the primary node waits and halts its transactions
till the time the secondary node sends an acknowledgment
indicating it has received the data log and persisted the log
volumes on its disk. The main advantage of using sync mode is
that it ensures and maintains consistency between the two nodes.
The primary node ensures that it will not commit any
transaction before the replication on the secondary node is
completed.
Synchronous in-memory mode: Synchronous in-memory mode is
the default replication mode. The primary node waits for a
confirmation message sent by the secondary node upon
receiving the log successfully. Until then, the primary
node/system commits no transactions. In other words, the
secondary system sends an acknowledgment back to the
primary system upon receiving the data successfully in its in-
memory.
Synchronous full sync mode: The full sync mode ensures complete
data protection i.e. zero data loss because it blocks the
transactions on the primary node until replication is
successfully completed on the secondary node. It blocks all the
operations on the primary node until the secondary node sends
an acknowledgment indicating that it has received the data logs
and persisted the log volumes on the disk.
Q.15 Explain run-length encoding compression used in SAP HANA?
Ans. We use data compression techniques to compress data
stored in column stores in HANA database. It is a necessary
step before storing data in HANA database to optimize SAP
HANA’s performance.
Run-length compression: In run-length encoding compression
method, it stores only one of the repeating value IDs along with
its start position. Suppose a data value with value ID 5 appears
3 times consecutively starting from position 0. Then the
compression will store only one instance off value ID 5 and the
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start position as 0. Thus, we call it run length encoding because
it stores the start positions as run-length values.
 Method type: RLE
 Applied to: Main storage
 Applied on: Several frequent column values
Q.16 What is SAP HANA sidecar?
Ans. SAP HANA sidecar is SAP HANA platform serving as a
secondary database and computing platform to a full-service,
already existing system with its own traditional database. SAP
HANA sidecar approach uses SAP HANA system for storage
and computational capabilities to carry out operations related
to the data and database objects of other systems.
Grasp the working of SAP HANA Sidecar in detail
Q.17 How is data imported/exported using Developer Mode in SAP
HANA?
Ans. The Developer Mode method is essentially used to
import/export individual database objects from a target system
to a location in the local client system. It is different from the
delivery unit method as in it, you have to export multiple
packages enclosed in a single unit and cannot export individual
files.
Q.18 What is SAP Support Mode?
Ans. We use the SAP Support Mode to export database objects
and data for SAP support purposes. Users use this export
method in case errors to seek help in troubleshooting and
debugging from the SAP Support team. In the SAP Support
Mode option, you simply have to select the data object facing
issues and add it into the Selected section. Then choose the
export location, i.e. to server or local client. Add required
details and click on Finish. It will export database object to the
support team’s system successfully.
Q.19 What are the potential risks to SAP HANA system?
Ans. There are some key risks to SAP HANA system against
which we implement security functionalities.
1. Web Applications
In a lot of SAP HANA scenarios, users use web browsers to
access applications deployed on SAP HANA system. Thus, a lot
of SAP HANA systems are easily available on the internet which
makes them prone to hacking. Also, unauthorized access is
possible through the web applications, where hackers can
interfere with HANA services. In addition to this, risks on SAP
HANA includes several web weaknesses such as XSS, SQL
injection, ABAP code injection, etc which makes intruding into
the system easy for the hackers.
2. RAM Scraping
In RAM scraping security threat, the malware or virus runs on
the in-memory along with the normal processes of SAP HANA.
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This makes detecting the malware very difficult as the malware
also disappears as soon as the in-memory processes terminate
and leaves no footprint. RAM scraping poses the most
dangerous threat to SAP HANA as it uses in-memory virus
vectors because SAP HANA is also an in-memory technology.
We cannot encrypt the HANA in-memory processes on RAM
level as it would degrade the performance of the system.
3. Basis Security
In most scenarios, SAP HANA runs parallelly to other systems
in a system landscape which increases the overall complexity.
The entire system landscape becomes more prone to security
failures and glitches as multiple security processes and
functions related to SAP HANA are also involved in the system
environment.
Make sure to complete the best SAP HANA Security Guide

Note: The above SAP HANA interview question is very
important for your interview preparation.
Q.20 Explain the Kerberos method of authentication in SAP HANA.
Ans. The Kerberos method enables the direct authentication of a
HANA user using external authentication methods. The
external login is mapped to SAP HANA user profile and the
user is authenticated in SAP HANA directly from external
platforms.
For example – Users can authenticate themselves via
JDBC/ODBC drivers through a network connection or using
SAP Business Object which is a front-end application.
In addition to this, user authentication in SAP HANA XS is also
possible for HTTP access. This process uses HANA XS
engine and SPENGO mechanism to carry out Kerberos
authentication.
Q.21 What is X.509 and its relation to SAP HANA?
Ans. It is an indirect method of security, authenticating users to
let them access SAP HANA. It gives User-specific x.509
certificates to users requesting access into the SAP HANA
database from SAP HANA XS system (via an HTTP request).
Trusted certification authority creates and signs these
certificates.
Thus, it is a legitimate mode of authentication. The user must
have a profile stored in SAP HANA for verification when they
assign a certificate for authentication to him. This method does
not map user data from external sources into SAP HANA.
Know all the Authentication Methods in SAP HANA

Q.22 How are SAP HANA users classified?
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Ans. SAP HANA users are broadly classified into two categories;
Technical (DBA) user and Database user.
1. Technical (DBA) User
The technical users are the ones that perform database
administration tasks in SAP HANA system. They are not the
usual users using HANA tools for accessing and transforming
data from the HANA database rather, they manage all the other
users. Some typical tasks performed by technical users are
to create database objects, assigning privileges to database users,
assigning privileges on packages and applications. SYSTEM, SYS,
and _SYS_REPO are the names of technical users that are
present in the SAP HANA system by default.
2. Database User
The database users are the actual users that interact with the
SAP HANA database to access and transform the data. Thus, it
is compulsory for every HANA user to have a database user
profile. We can create Database users either by SAP HANA
Studio GUI method or by SQL commands. The SQL statement for
creating a database user is CREATE USER (for standard user)
and CREATE RESTRICTED USER (for restricted user). Further,
there are two types of database users.
2.1. Standard Database User
The standard users are those who can create database objects
in the schemas owned by them and have read access for system
views.
2.2. Restricted Database User
The restricted database user type are the users who provision
other users using SAP HANA through client applications.
Initially, restricted users have no privileges and have limited
SQL access via SQL console. Usually one can assign
application-specific roles to a restricted user.
Note: The above question is most asked SAP HANA interview
question.
Q.23 What do you understand by roles in SAP HANA?
Ans. A ‘Role’ in SAP HANA is a collection of different privileges
granted as a single unit to a database user or another role in
runtime. The standard mechanism of granting privileges in SAP
HANA is through Roles.
By using roles instead of granting individual privileges, one can
pass on complex authorization concepts to users and
implement it in HANA system working. A role essentially
contains such collection of privileges using which the database
users can perform certain tasks like creating models and reports,
reading reports using client tools such as Microsoft
Excel, maintaining and operating databases and users, etc.
277
Have you checked the Analytic Privileges in SAP HANA article
Q.24 Enlist the scenarios in which object privileges are used in SAP
HANA.
Ans. Object privileges used in different scenarios are given
below:
 We can use object privileges to authorize run time database
objects.
 Object privileges are used as source privileges to authorize
the access of remote data sources connected to SAP HANA
through SAP HANA smart data access.
 We can use object privileges to authorize activated
repository objects such as calculation views.
 We can use object privileges to authorize schema
containing an activated repository object.
Q.25 Which privileges do you need to work on a schema, table or views in
SAP HANA?
Ans. An authenticated HANA system user requires the object
privileges listed below to have the permission to work on
schemas, tables or views.
 ALL PRIVILEGES
 CREATE ANY
 CREATE VIRTUAL FUNCTION PACKAGE
 ALTER
 CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE
 DEBUG
 DELETE
 DROP
 EXECUTE
 INDEX
 INSERT
 REFERENCES
 SELECT
 TRIGGER
 UPDATE
Q.26 What are the most probable reasons for SAP HANA system
lockdown?
Ans. The most probable reasons for a system to go into a
lockdown mode are explained below:
 Expiration of a temporary license which stays valid only for
90 days from SAP HANA database installation.
 When you have not renewed a permanent license key and
the temporary key has also expired after 28 days.
 The hardware key changes while using a temporary license
key.
 When you have an enforced license key type and you exceed
the permitted memory usage on it.
278
 When you delete all the existing license keys on your
system.
Q.27 What is the difference between unenforced and enforced licence
keys?
Ans. There are two types of permanent license keys; unenforced
license key and enforced license key.
 Unenforced License Key: In the case of having an unenforced
license key, if you exceed memory usage of SAP HANA
system than what your license allows, it will not affect your
HANA system. The system will not get locked down,
instead, the user will receive a memory over usage message
warning. That is if you have a license for using 1 TB
memory, but you use 2 TB memory, then you will only get a
warning message for the exceeding usage of HANA
memory.
 Enforced License Key: As opposed to the unenforced license
key, the enforced license key locks a HANA system if the
user exceeds the licensed memory usage. In this case, the
user needs to restart the system and request for a new
permanent license for installation with the same or
extended memory usage limit.
Do check the SAP HANA License Management Guide
Q.28 Which SQL statements will you use to check your current HANA
license details, install a new license and delete a license?
Ans. To check the license properties of your HANA system,
enter:
1. SELECT*FROM “SYS”.”M_LICENSE”;
To install a new license key, enter:
1. SET SYSTEM LICENSE <location of your .txt file>;

The location can be c:\license.txt
To delete existing licenses:
1. UNSET SYSTEM LICENSE ALL

Q.29 What are auditing policies in SAP HANA auditing?
Ans. The audit policies define and decide which activities or
events in SAP HANA need auditing. The administrators need to
enable a newly created audit policy as it will not get triggered
on an assigned action unless enabled manually and explicitly.
The administrator is free to enable or disable an audit policy as
per requirement. To enable or disable an audit policy, the
administrator must have AUDIT ADMIN privilege. In addition to
this, any user who has system privileges like AUDIT ADMIN,
CATALOG READ or DATA ADMIN can view and check the
existing audit policies in public view named AUDIT_POLICIES.
279
Q.30 What is the maximum possible number of tables and columns within
each table in SAP HANA?
Ans. The maximum number of tables which we can create under
a schema is 131072 in SAP HANA system.
The maximum number of columns which we can create in a
table is 1000 under a HANA system schema.
SAP HANA Quiz

 SAP HANA Quiz – Part 1
 SAP HANA Quiz – Part 2
https://community.microstrategy.com/s/article/SAP-HANA-Best-Practices-for-
Performance?language=en_US
Title
SAP HANA Best Practices for Performance
Content
This article covers best practices for the following topics:

1. Query Optimization
2. Query Generation
3. SAP HANA Query Execution
Query Optimization
SQL Global Optimization

This setting can substantially reduce the number of SQL passes generated by
MicroStrategy. In MicroStrategy, SQL Global Optimization reduces the total
number of SQL passes with the following optimizations:
 Eliminates unused SQL passes, e.g. a temp table is created but not
referenced in a later pass
 Reuses redundant SQL passes
 E.g. exact same temp table is created multiple times single temp table is
created
 Combines SQL passes where the SELECT list is different
o E.g. two temp tables have same FROM clause, same JOINs,
same WHERE clause, same GROUP BY SELECT lists are
combined into single SELECT statement
 Combines SQL passes where the WHERE clause is different
280
o E.g. two temp tables have same SELECT list, same FROM
clause, same JOINs, same GROUP BY predicates from the
WHERE clause are moved into CASE statements in the SELECT
list.
The default setting for SAP HANA is to enable SQL Global Optimization at its
highest level. If your Database Instance is configured as an earlier version of SAP
HANA, you may have to enable this setting manually. For more information, see
the System Administration Guide.
Set Operator Optimization

This setting is used to combine multiple subqueries into a single subquery using
set operators (i.e. UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT). The default setting for SAP
HANA is to enable Set Operator Optimization.
Bulk Inserts
Parameterized inserts are supported by SAP HANA. MicroStrategy Developers
must configure the MicroStrategy Database Connection to enable the use of
parameterized inserts into SAP HANA.
281
Default VLDB Settings for SAP HANA
VLDB Category VLDB Property Setting Value
Intermediate Table
Tables True temporary table
Type
Tables Table Creation Type explicit table
Intermediate Table
Indexing Don’t create an index
Index
Full Outer Join

Joins Supported
Support
UNION multiple
Select/Insert Do NOT USE UNION
INSERT
282
Distinct / Group By
Select/Insert Use DISTINCT
Option
GROUP BY Non-ID
Select/Insert Use Group by
Attribute
Query 2: WHERE COL1 IN (SELECT s1.COL1) falling

Sub Query Type
Optimizations back to EXISTS ..
Query SQL Global Level 4: Level2 + Merge All Passes with

Optimizations Optimization Different Where
Query Set Operator

Enable set operator optimization
Optimizations Optimization
Additional VLDB Settings

Many of the VLDB properties control string syntax using in SQL queries
generated by the MicroStrategy SQL engine. MicroStrategy application
developers can further optimize SQL for their specific SAP HANA environment
using these string insertion settings. Possible locations for VLDB optimizations in
the query structure are listed below.
VLDB String Insertion Settings when using Temporary Tables
[Report Pre Statements]
[Table Pre Statements]
create table <table_name>

as
select <column_expressions>
from <tables_and_joins>
where <filter_expressions>
group by <column_expressions>
having <column_expressions> [Insert Post String]
create [Index Qualifier] index [Index Prefix]<index_name> on

<table_name>(column_name) [Index Post String]
[Table Post Statements]
group by <column_expressions>[Select Post String][Select Statement Post
String]
[Report Post Statements]
drop table <table_name>

283
[Cleanup Post Statements]
VLDB String Insertion Settings when using Permanent Tables

When Intermediate Table Type is set to Permanent Tables, some additional
string-valued settings are enabled so that the user can customize the syntax of
CREATE TABLE statement. The SQL below shows the position of these VLDB
settings.
[Report Pre Statements]
[Table Pre Statements]
create [Table Qualifier] table [Table Descriptor][Table

Prefix]<table_name> [Table Option]
[Table Space] as
group by <column_expressions>
having <column_expressions>[Insert Post String]
CREATE INDEX ON <table_name>
Full Outer Join

SAP HANA 1.0 SP2 supports FULL OUTER JOIN syntax between tables in the
FROM clause. By default, MicroStrategy will use FULL OUTER JOIN when
needed because in SAP HANA, queries that perform full outer joins between
several tables perform better than when the Full Outer Join VLDB setting is set to
No Support where the SQL Engine will generate SQL that simulates full outer
joins by using UNION and left outer joins.
Full Outer Join = Support

select coalesce(pa11.CUSTOMER_ID, pa12.CUSTOMER_ID) CUSTOMER_ID,
a13.CUST_LAST_NAME CUST_LAST_NAME,
a13.CUST_FIRST_NAME CUST_FIRST_NAME,
coalesce(pa11.MONTH_ID, pa12.MONTH_ID) MONTH_ID,
a14.MONTH_DESC MONTH_DESC,
pa11.WJXBFS1 WJXBFS1,
pa12.WJXBFS1 WJXBFS2
from ZZMD00 pa11
full outer join ZZMD01 pa12
on (pa11.CUSTOMER_ID = pa12.CUSTOMER_ID and
pa11.MONTH_ID = pa12.MONTH_ID)
join LU_CUSTOMER a13
on (coalesce(pa11.CUSTOMER_ID, pa12.CUSTOMER_ID) =
a13.CUSTOMER_ID)
284
join LU_MONTH a14
on (coalesce(pa11.MONTH_ID, pa12.MONTH_ID) = a14.MONTH_ID)) pa11
full outer join LU_YEAR a12
on (pa11.YEAR_ID = a12.YEAR_ID)
Full Outer Join = No Support

create table ZZOJ02 as (
select pa11.MONTH_ID MONTH_ID,
pa11.CUSTOMER_ID CUSTOMER_ID
from ZZMD00 pa11 ) no logging;
insert into ZZOJ02

select pa11.MONTH_ID MONTH_ID,
from ZZMD01 pa11;
create table ZZOD03 as (

select distinct pa11.MONTH_ID MONTH_ID,
from ZZOJ02 pa11) no logging ;
select pa11.CUSTOMER_ID CUSTOMER_ID,

a14.CUST_LAST_NAME CUST_LAST_NAME,
a14.CUST_FIRST_NAME CUST_FIRST_NAME,
pa11.MONTH_ID MONTH_ID,
a15.MONTH_DESC MONTH_DESC,
pa12.WJXBFS1 WJXBFS1,
pa13.WJXBFS1 WJXBFS2
from ZZOD03 pa11
left outer join ZZMD00 pa12
left outer join ZZMD01 pa13
join LU_CUSTOMER a14
on (pa11.CUSTOMER_ID = a14.CUSTOMER_ID)
join LU_MONTH a15
on (pa11.MONTH_ID = a15.MONTH_ID)
Query Generation
Sub Query Type

There are cases in which the SQL Engine generates subqueries (i.e. query
blocks in the WHERE clause):
 Reports that use Relationship Filters

 Reports that use “NOT IN” set qualification, e.g. AND NOT or AND NOT
285
 Reports that use Attribute qualification with M-M relationships, e.g. show
Revenue by Category, filter on Catalog
 Reports that “raise the level” of a filter, e.g. dimensional metric at Region
level, but qualify on Store
 Reports that use non-aggregatable metrics, e.g. inventory metrics
 Reports that use Dimensional extensions
 Reports that use Attribute to attribute comparison in the filter
The default setting for Sub Query Type for SAP HANA 1.0 SP2 is Option 2 –
“Where col1 in (select s1.col1…) falling back to EXISTS (select * …) for multiple
columns IN.” In most cases, the subquery expression will be generated with IN
syntax.
select a11.REGION_ID REGION_ID,

a13.REGION_NAME REGION_NAME,sum(a11.TOT_DOLLAR_SALES)
WJXBFS1
from "STATE_SUBCATEG_REGION_SLS" a11 join "LU_SUBCATEG" a12
on (a11.SUBCAT_ID= a12.SUBCAT_ID)
join "LU_REGION" a13
on (a11.REGION_ID= a13.REGION_ID)
where ((a12.CATEGORY_ID)in (select ps21.CATEGORY_ID from #ZZMQ01
ps21))
group by a11.REGION_ID, a13.REGION_NAME
If the subquery logically requires more than one column, then an expression
using EXISTS syntax is generated.
select a11.REGION_ID REGION_ID,

a13.REGION_NAME REGION_NAME,
sum(a11.TOT_DOLLAR_SALES) WJXBFS1
from "EAT_WH2"."STATE_SUBCATEG_REGION_SLS" a11
join "EAT_WH2"."LU_SUBCATEG"a12
on (a11.SUBCAT_ID= a12.SUBCAT_ID)
join "EAT_WH2"."LU_REGION" a13 on (a11.REGION_ID =
a13.REGION_ID)
where (exists (select *
from #ZZTI3D3KLFMMQ001 ps21
where ps21.CATEGORY_ID= a12.CATEGORY_ID))
group by a11.REGION_ID,
a13.REGION_NAME
The other settings are not likely to be advantageous with SAP HANA:
 Option 0 – “WHERE EXISTS (select * …)”

IN performs better than EXISTS. This setting is useful for RDBMS
platforms that do not support any of the other syntax.
 Option 1 – “WHERE EXISTS (select col1, col2 …)”
IN performs better than EXISTS. This setting is useful for RDBMS
platforms that do not support other syntax and for which selecting column
names performs better than select *.
286
 Option 3 – “Where (col1, col2) in (Select s1.col1, s1.col2…)”
SAP HANA supports multiple columns in an IN subquery, but the
performance does not show much improvement.
 Option 4 – “Use temporary table falling back to [Option 0]
for correlated subqueries” IN performs better than EXISTS for. Option 6 is
better than Option 4 for SAP HANA
 Option 5 – “WHERE col1 IN (select s1.col1), falling back to [Option 1] for
multiple columns” EXISTS (select * …) performs better than EXISTS
(select col1, col2), so Option 2 is a better choice than Option 5.
Parallel SQL Execution

Parallel SQL Execution (PSE) is the ability to run some passes of a multi-pass
SQL in parallel, with the idea of improving the overall report execution time. Each
report that is executed in sequential mode may record projected improvement in
execution time if run in parallel mode. This information can be used to turn on
PSE Mode. PSE is typically useful for reports that source from multiple databases
as the report SQL passes tend to be distributed across sources and there is not
an increased query load on a single database due to passes being run in parallel.
In addition to multisource reports, PSE can be considered for any critical or high
visibility reports or for scheduled reports/cubes that are executed during off-peak
hours when the load on the database tends to be low. It is important to consider
the load on the database system, before turning on PSE for a large number of
reports.
PSE VLDB Settings:
Level Category Setting Value
Project, Query - Disable (default)

Parallel Query Execution
Report Optimizations - Enable
- Disable (default)
Parallel Query Execution - Enable for multiple data
Project, Query
Improvement Estimate in source reports only
Report Optimizations
SQL View - Enable for all reports that
support it
Query Maximum Parallel Queries

Project - 2 (default)
Optimizations Per Report
SAP HANA Query Execution (and Pre\Post)

Queries that are submitted directly to a SAP HANA cluster (via ODBCExecDirect
function call: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131703.aspx) are
executed solely on the master node. The SAP HANA master node will generate
distributed execution plans for queries submitted as prepared statement
(https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131667.aspx) which typically has
highly beneficial impact on system resources and query execution times.
287
By default MicroStrategy submits all queries directly because of a small but real
overhead introduced by preparing statements. To better support clustered
deployments of SAP HANA, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server will submit all
queries as prepared statements if the following registry key is created on the
Intelligence Server machine:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MicroStrategy\DSS
Suite\ConnectionLimit]
"UsePrepareStatement"=dword:00000001
Multi-Source
No SAP HANA specific customizations were made for this feature.
Aggregation
Normalization
Data Fetch
Partitioning
288

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https://www.guru99.com/introduction-sap-bi.

 1. Introduction SAP BI/BW

 17) ECC: Load Transaction Data

SAP HANA Tutorials

 1) What is SAP HANA?

Tutorial Download & Install

Tutorial SAP HANA SQL

Tutorial Data Type

Tutorial SQL FUNCTIONS

Tutorial SQL EXPRESSIONS

Tutorial SQL Stored Procedure

Tutorial Create Trigger

Tutorial SQL DATA Profiling

Tutorial SQL SCRIPT

Tutorial Calculation View

Tutorial DATA Provisioning & Replication

Tutorial SAP HANA SLT

Tutorial SAP DS (SAP DATA Services)

Tutorial Direct Extractor Connection (DXC)

Tutorial Flat file Upload

Tutorial Attribute View

Tutorial Analytic View

Tutorial Analytic Privileges

Tutorial Information Composer

Tutorial Import and Export

Tutorial Interview Questions

What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA Table Function linking with Calculation

SAP HANA Table function (Contd..)

The next step is to establish a connection between the table function’s

Jump To BW/4HANA Topics

What is SAP BW?

What is SAP BW on HANA?

What is SAP BW on HANA?

SAP BW on HANA 7.3 tried to provide for faster load

At this point, I would like to set the expectations from

What is SAP BW/4HANA?

What is SAP BW/4HANA?

SAP also now wants to focus on building a business

BW Perspective for BW4/HANA

The SAP HANA Studio consists of different “Perspectives”. Each

Right-click anywhere in the blank area and navigate as below to create a

Once entered press Finish.

Give the project a name.. or if you are as lazy as I am, leave it as it is ..

 What is SAP HANA

SAP HANA stands for (High-Performance Analytic

It is a blend of both hardware and software due to which it

SAP HANA Database is classified into two types such as:

SAP HANA edition is classified into three types such as:

 SAP HANA Platform Edition

The four components of SAP HANA:

SAP HANA DB- Database Technology

 SAP HANA Training Tutorials for Beginners

SAP HANA Job Roles

 Modeler: A modeler should have a fair clue regarding

SAP HANA Course Content:

 Introduction to SAP HANA, SAP in memory strategy

 SAP HANA In-Memory Database

The SAP HANA database is built on C++ and operates on

Know about SAP HANA architecture:

Among all these index server is the most significant

Name Server: It comprises of thorough information