Question:
Hi All,
Can some one tell me what is the significance of a time characteristic in the cube design? When I load data with time related fields, say for example, the line item details of the purchase order, I think data as appearing in the POs can be stored in the cube. If so, what is the need for a time characteristic?
By the way what is the difference between a time characteristic and a time reference characteristic? What are the non-cumulative values?
These things may be trivial, but still I would like to have a clear understanding.
Thanks.
Answer:
The time characteristics in the cube design determine how you will be able to report by time in your queries. For example, Year, Moth, Year&Month, may be included; all being derived from the document date.
Time reference characteristics are related to non-cumulative key figures. There have been previous posts on this (search also for exception aggregation). Also refer to [url]help.sap.com[/url], which includes a detailed explanation.