How to Handle Data Errors in Data Transfer Processes in SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BW/4HANA is a modern data warehousing solution that enables you to integrate, transform, and analyze data from various sources. One of the key tasks of data warehousing is how to ensure the data quality, consistency, and accuracy. This is where error handling comes in handy.

Error handling is a feature that allows you to detect and resolve data errors that occur during the data transfer processes (DTPs) in SAP BW/4HANA. DTPs are used to load data from one InfoProvider to another InfoProvider, such as from a DataSource to an Advanced DataStore Object (ADSO).

Data errors can occur due to various reasons, such as incorrect data types, invalid values, missing values, duplicate values, or transformation rules. Error handling can help you to identify and correct these errors, or to isolate and exclude them from the data load.

In this blog post, we will explain what error handling is, how it works, and how to use it in SAP BW/4HANA.

What is Error Handling?

Error handling is a feature that allows you to define different options for handling data errors in DTPs in SAP BW/4HANA. You can use error handling to specify how the DTP should behave when an error occurs, such as:

• Cancel the request, do not track the records, and do not update the target. This is the default option in the DTP. With this option, the DTP stops the data load for the entire data package when an error occurs, and reports the error as a package error in the DTP monitor. The request is not released for reporting. The incorrect records are not written to the data transfer intermediate storage (DTIS), also known as the error stack, since the request has been terminated and has to be completely updated again. The error is not assigned to the data record. This option provides the best performance in all cases where the data quality is satisfactory, and the data flow has been tested.
• Cancel the request, track the first incorrect record, and do not update the target. With this option, the DTP behaves the same as with the previous option, with the difference that a cross-reference table for determining the data record number is created during the processing of all DTP data packages. This allows for better troubleshooting. If errors occur, the cross-reference table makes it possible to trace back to the source in order to find out which data record caused the error.
• Set the request to success, write the error stack, and update only valid records. With this option, the DTP continues the data load for the entire data package when an error occurs, and reports only a warning message in the DTP monitor. The request is released for reporting. The incorrect records are written to the DTIS (error stack), where they can be corrected or deleted later. The error is assigned to each incorrect record. This option provides more flexibility in handling errors, but may affect performance and consistency.

You can use error handling either on partition level or on object level. On partition level, you can create partitions based on characteristics such as time characteristics (0CALDAY, 0CALMONTH etc) to divide the entire dataset of your ADSO into several small independent units. You can then assign different error handling options for each partition based on your requirements. On object level, you can assign one error handling option for the entire dataset of your ADSO.

How to Use Error Handling in SAP BW/4HANA?

To use error handling in SAP BW/4HANA, you need to follow these steps:

1. Enable error handling in the Update tab of your DTP. Under Error Handling, you can choose one of the three options: Request is canceled, records are not tracked and target is not updated; Request is canceled, first incorrect record is tracked and target is not updated; or Request is set to success, error stack is written and valid records are updated.
2. Choose the method by which you want to define the error handling options for your DTP. You can choose either on partition level or on object level.
3. If you choose on partition level, go to the Settings tab of your ADSO and create partitions based on characteristics by which you want to split your dataset. For each partition, provide a lower limit and upper limit for the characteristic value. Then assign an error handling option for each partition based on your requirements.
4. If you choose on object level, go to the Settings tab of your ADSO and assign one error handling option for the entire dataset of your ADSO based on your requirements.
5. Activate the changes in your DTP. This will generate the metadata and partitions for error handling in SAP BW/4HANA.
6. Run the DTP and monitor the data load in the DTP monitor. If errors occur, you can check the error messages and the error stack in the DTP monitor. You can also use the cross-reference table to trace back to the source of the error.
7. If you have chosen the option to write the error stack, you can use an error DTP to correct or delete the incorrect records in the error stack. An error DTP is a special type of DTP that is automatically created and activated when you enable error handling in your DTP. You can edit the error DTP to define how to handle the incorrect records, such as by applying transformations, filters, or validations. You can then run the error DTP to update the target with the corrected records or to remove the incorrect records from the error stack.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have explained what error handling is, how it works, and how to use it in SAP BW/4HANA. We have shown how error handling can help you to detect and resolve data errors that occur during the DTPs in SAP BW/4HANA.

We hope you have found this post useful and informative. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Disclaimer: This content is generated by AI.