The Wait Is Over

If you’re a cloud user, you’ll want this link: Cloud SAP HANA SQL Reference Guide

If you’re an on-premise user, you’ll want this link: On-premise SAP HANA SQL Reference Guide

Difference Between the Cloud and On-Premise Versions of This Guide

Below is the entire list of differences between the cloud and on-premise versions of this guide:

• { }  <– empty set

That’s right.. the guides are (intentionally) identical, so that you don’t have to wonder/worry whether you are in the right place; you always are.

Why? The SAP HANA SQL Reference guide documents the supported SQL grammar used in the HANA server (ok, plus a few other tidbits). While there are likely parts of the grammar that aren’t relevant or applicable to use in the cloud context, this API guide doesn’t attempt to articulate them all. Instead, HANA features/components that behave differently in cloud vs on-premise contexts are noted as such in the documentation for those features/components.  That being said, you might still find the random mention of cloud in the document.

Other helpful links for the release:

• HANA 2.0 SPS 04 On-premise Documentation
• HANA as a Service (HaaS)  Documentation
• HANA Feature Scope Description
• Joerg Latza’s blog post on What’s New in SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 04
• I need more time to find good links for you.. feel free to suggest

What’s New in the HANA SQL Grammar?

Changes to the SQL Grammar grouped by type of change (e.g, statements or functions etc) can be found here or here (both are identical).

Changes to the SQL grammar grouped by development takt (hey, we’re a German company following the Agile s/w development model) can be found here:  What’s New in the SAP HANA Database

If you go the latter route (takt grouping), be sure to use the Feature field located at the top of the massively long table of goodness to filter your search(es). For example, type SQL in the field to see the news you really want.

What’s New in the Guide?

System and Monitoring Views are Now Teased Apart

Just letting you know this so you don’t scroll down the list of system views looking for the ones that start with M_ like you used to do. Instead, visit the monitoring views in their new home.

Overhaul of Aggregate Functions Sections

Missing from previous releases was the fact you could use many aggregate functions as window functions. The syntax for doing so was also missing. That’s been fixed and the whole area will look and link together a bit differently. Hope this is more helpful going forward.

<pedantry>I find it odd that we English speakers say “..on the premises” – as in, “We don’t allow dogs on the premises”. Yet we call it “on-premise software”. Of course, there IS a form of the word that doesn’t have the ‘s’ in it. As in “We don’t allow dogs here on the premise that dogs bite the hands that don’t feed them.”  But that’s a different meaning entirely. Odd.</pedantry>

Other Fiddly Improvements

We hear(d) you – many views were missing unit-of-measure details (seconds? ms? MB?). Functions were missing return types. Statements were missing permissions info. Examples just weren’t.

A LOT has been added to address these gaps. But it’s a work in progress.

We do get your feedback, though, so feel free to feed back. And yes, you do have to click the Thumbs Up icon to even leave negative feedback.

Three Help Portal Features You Might Like

Design/Download **Custom** PDFs

Only want a portion of a book as a PDF?  Try out this widget, available from the Download PDF dropdown once you have your favorite book open (aka the HANA SQL Reference Guide):

Download the Whole Shebang

On the SAP HANA product page, there continues to be a Documentation Download link for getting a ZIP of all the PDFs at once. To save you a few clicks, this will work too: Download the PDFs

Looking Back Over Time

Remember, you can always switch between different versions of HANA documentation once you are in the SAP Help Portal by fiddling with the Version dropdown located in the top right corner of the window.

That’s it for now, but I’ll add more as more comes to mind!