Time Dimension and Blogging Business

[former_member182913]

Before I finally started this Blog, I gave it some weeks of thought... Not because of any particular teleological, ontological, or deep strategic reason. Strategically it was clear to me from the beginning, that this Blog is simply a good idea. I also enjoy writing, and my partners at Glooobal are awfully happy about this Blog.

With so many benefits and good reasons, you may now wonder, why so many weeks of indecision, and procrastination?

The answer to this question is pretty anticlimactic, but nonetheless very valid:

It is simply about the Time Dimension.

I believe in making decisions about the right things first, THEN doing them right, ELSE not even starting. This involves a certain level of completeness, which does not necessarily mean perfection, really. It does rather require soul and commitment.

How many Blogs do I need to produce per Unit of Time in order to be "complete" according to my own expectations? It is definitely not a question of numbers alone, but of integrated passion. However, it is easy to fall into the pitfalls of the human condition, that is, I might contradict myself from time to time. For example, I might feel a bit sad, and a bit guilty, because I did not find the time to publish any Blog for more than, say, 15 days.

Oh, dear!

Speaking about Time Dimensions... I just remembered a cute feature in SAP HANA, which I would like to tell you about. It is a small Delikatessen before the weekend.

Every child learns arithmetic at school. With a little help of basic SQL knowledge, and a mental ruler and eraser, everyone can develop a small SQL Script to calculate, say, Quarters or Weekdays out of Dates, or convert and revamp date formats in many different sizes and colors. However, if you have thousands of such calculations going on all the time, the HANA Calculation Engine will shed a couple of beads of sweat at some point.

And here's the solution: You can generate time dimension data very easily: Take a look at the M_TIME_DIMENSION table under the _SYS_BI Catalog Schema in the SAP HANA Studio and you will see the light.

You only need to click on "Generate Time Data" on the Quick Launch Tab and that's it.

Beautiful!

Gemma Durany

Co-Founder and COO

Glooobal GmbH