Multiple values in Input Parameter for HANA calculation view
This blog covers an area for which I struggled sometime to actually achieve desired output. Hence, I planned to put forth the usecase and how I achieved it, so that it helps developers who face similar scenarios.
I was working on a HANA Calculation view that was consolidating data from over 8-9 other views. Each of them actually exposing multiple input parameters. Three of them were as follows
- Start Month (sample representation as ‘082017’)
- End Month (sample represenation as ‘102017’)
- Months in Between, Inclusive. (sample representation ‘082017, 092017, 102017’)
Now, in my calculation view, I actually wanted to do the following
- Dynamically calculate the values for “Months in Between” input parameter based on Start Month and End Month
- Supply the calculated multiple values to the “Months in Between” input parameter
Solution
First step was to actually calculate Next Period for a given period . I used a Scalar function in HANA to achieve that
FUNCTION "XYZ"."abc.mno::SF_NEXT_PERIOD" (
IN val VARCHAR(10))
RETURNS RESULT VARCHAR(10)
LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT
SQL SECURITY INVOKER AS
BEGIN
DECLARE monthVal, yearVal, thisMonth, thisYear INT := 0;
thisMonth := TO_INT(SUBSTRING(val,0,2));
thisYear := TO_INT(SUBSTRING(val,3,4));
IF :thisMonth = 12
THEN
monthVal := 1;
yearVal := :thisYear + 1;
ELSE
monthVal := :thisMonth + 1;
yearVal := :thisYear;
END IF;
result := LPAD ((:monthVal||:yearVal), 6, '0');
END;
Second step was to actually create the list of periods in between for the given start month and end month. I again used a Scalar function in HANA to achieve that
FUNCTION "XYZ"."abc.mno::SF_PERIODS_IN_BETWEEN" (
IN startPeriod VARCHAR(10), IN endPeriod VARCHAR(10))
RETURNS RESULT VARCHAR(255)
LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT
SQL SECURITY INVOKER AS
BEGIN
DECLARE temp VARCHAR(255);
DECLARE val VARCHAR(10);
DECLARE idx, totalMonth INT := 0;
totalMonth := MONTHS_BETWEEN(TO_DATE(startPeriod,'MMYYYY'), TO_DATE(endPeriod,'MMYYYY'));
temp := '''';
val := startPeriod;
FOR idx IN 0..totalMonth DO
IF :idx = 0
THEN
IF :idx = :totalMonth
THEN
temp := ''''||:startPeriod||'''';
ELSE
temp := ''''||:startPeriod||''',''';
END IF;
ELSEIF :idx = totalMonth
THEN
temp := :temp||:endPeriod||'''';
ELSE
val := "XYZ"."abc.mno::SF_NEXT_PERIOD"(val);
temp := :temp||:val||''',''';
END IF;
END FOR;
result := :temp;
END;
Third step was to actually call that function from the HANA calculation view. If you remember while creating Input parameters in HANA you have a option to supply input parameter values via a Procedure/Scalar function
While actually using that scalar function, I faced issues. So I actually did wrapped the scalar function within a HANA procedure and used the same in Input parameter definition.
HANA procedure looked like
PROCEDURE "_SYS_BIC"."abc.mno::PR_PERIODS" (
IN startPeriod VARCHAR(10), IN endPeriod VARCHAR(10), OUT val VARCHAR(255))
LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT
SQL SECURITY INVOKER
READS SQL DATA AS
BEGIN
SELECT "XYZ"."abc.mno::SF_PERIODS_IN_BETWEEN"(:startPeriod, :endPeriod) INTO val FROM Dummy;
END;
And the same was then used in Input Parameter definition.
Next would be to actually “Manage Mappings”. See the above screenshot for the button at the bottom. This will allow you to supply the other input parameter values directly to the SAP HANA procedure as Input.
And that’s it. Hope this was of some help.
If SCALAR FUNCTION can be used as INPUT PARAMETER IN CV, WHY WAS NEED TO CREATE PROCEDURE AS ONE MORE OBJECT?
I had issues in eclipse to use the scalar function. So had to workaround it. This may be related to the eclipse version I was using.
Ashutosh
Nice to see someone blogging about how to write code for HANA!
While I'm not a 100% sure that I get why this whole thing is necessary, I'm pretty sure that we can remove the whole SF_NEXT_PERIOD function simply with
The result of this call is - correctly - '012019'.
Obviously, you can change the actual value for the date and also the number of periods to add.
Even better, why not get rid of all the looping altogether and use the SAP HANA built-in auxiliary table for all sorts of time calculations: _SYS_BI.M_TIME_DIMENSION.
You can, of course, build your own aux. table but dealing with generating code all the time seems not the best option in terms of runtime efficiency and code maintenance.
Once the table is pre-populated (see generate time data in the reference manual) you could run a single SELECT like this to get your in between periods in that funny format MONTH-YEAR:
The complicated bit here really is to swap the YEAR and MONTH data around so it matches the SAP notation for CALMONTH (YYYYMM).
This logic can obviously be simply put into your PR_PERIODS code so that you can feed the result back to the parameters of the other calculation views.
Hi Lars,
Thank you for time and effort to provide the feedback. This was actually my first attempt coding on SAP HANA, what you see above was limited by my knowhow on the topic.
Your inputs are really helpful. I will use your suggestions to imrpove/optimize the code here.
Regards,
Ashutosh
Hello Ashutosh,
I’ve a sql scripted calculation view and I want to allow multiple values in an input parameter. Need to be able to filter the script view based upon multiple values in one parameter.
Thanks
Ravi.