SAP HANA: Interview Questions 51 through 60

51.In which configuration tables the generated time data information will be stored in HANA? 

For Gregorian calendar type  

• M_TIME_DIMENSION_YEAR 

• M_TIME_DIMENSION_MONTH 

• M_TIME_DIMENSION_WEEK 

• M_TIME_DIMENSION 

For Fiscal 

• M_FISCAL_CALENDAR 

All these tables are under schema _SYS_BI. 

52.What is the difference between attribute and measure? 

Columns of modeling view can be classified as Attribute or Measure. 

• Attribute: Non-measurable, Descriptive data, such as customer ID, city, and country 

• Measure: Quantifiable data, such as revenue, quantity sold and counters. 

 Let us take an example of an organization’s sales tables. The table contains columns like SALES, PROFIT, PRODUCT, CUSTOMER NAME, YEAR, COUNTRY etc. The important business use cases will be like: 

• What is the sales value for country India for year 2013? 

• What is the profit for product ‘XYZ’ for country USA? 

The SALES and PROFIT columns are numeric values. These columns are measurable and can be aggregated. While the columns PRODUCT, CUSTOMER NAME, YEAR and COUNTRY are descriptive and non-measurable. 

 Here PRODUCT, CUSTOMER NAME, YEAR and COUNTRY are attributes, while SALES and PROFIT are measures. 

53.What is a Private Attribute in HANA? 

Private attributes are the attributes used inside a modeling views and cannot be used outside the view.  

These are used in a modeling view to customize the behavior of an attribute for only that view. 

54.What are the different types of measures in modeling view? 

There are 3 types of measures in HANA: 

• Simple Measure: a measurable analytical element that is derived from the data foundation. 

• Calculated Measure: are created using some calculation on top of an existing measures or attributes. 

• Private Measures: are measures used inside a modeling views and cannot be used outside the view. 

55.What is the difference between Variable and Input parameter in HANA? 

Variables are bound to columns and are used for filtering using WHERE clauses.  

As such, they can only contain the values available in the Columns they relate to.  

Variables do not impact the execution. 

HANA Input parameters used to manipulate the execution based on user input.  

Sometimes you might not want a variable to just restrict the data of a view.  

But you also want to take input from the user and process it, returning dynamic data based on the user selection.   

Input Parameters makes this possible. 

56.In which configuration table you can find the variables information? 

There are 4 system tables under the schema _SYS_BI which contains information about Variables: 

• BIMC_VARIABLE 

• BIMC_VARIABLE_ASSIGNMENT 

• BIMC_VARIABLE_VIEW 

• BIMC_VARIABLE_VALUE 

57.What are the different types of Input parameters supported? 

The following types of Input parameters are supported. 

• Currency: Use this during currency conversion where the end user should specify a source or target currency. 

• Date: Use this to retrieve a date from the end user using a calendar type input box. 

• Static List: Use this when the end user should have a set list of values to choose from. 

• Attribute Value: When an Input Variable has this type, it serves the same purpose as a normal Variable. 

• None: If none of the above applies you do not have to specify an Input Variable type. The Type can be left blank. 

58.How do we pass input parameters from SQL query? 

The value of Input Parameter is passed using PLACEHOLDER clause. For example:     ('PLACEHOLDER' = ('$$Param1$$', 'value')) 

59.Suppose you have the sales data in a database table in a different currency. How can you generate a Sales report for a region in a particular currency? 

Create an Analytic view by selecting the table column containing the sales data and currency and perform currency conversion. Once the view is activated, we can use it to generate reports. 

60.What are the factors that affect currency conversion? 

Currency conversion is performed based on source currency, target currency, exchange rate, and date of conversion. You can select currency from the attribute data used in the view.  

Currency conversion is enabled for Analytic view and Calculation views.