The Power of Performance Optimized ABAP and Parallel Cursor in SAP BI

The Power of Performance
Optimized ABAP and Parallel

Cursor in SAP BI
Applies to:
SAP BI 7.0, SAP ABAP. For more information, visit the Business Intelligence homepage.
Summary
The objective of the article is to outline & explain the performance considerations while using ABAP and
parallel cursor technique in context to SAP BI. The document will also showcase the extent of performance
improvement that can be derived using the technique mentioned above.
Author: Gundeep Singh, Deepak Somani

Company: Accenture
Created on: 11 February 2010
Author Bio
Gundeep Singh is working as SAP BI Consultant in Accenture Services Private Ltd and
having extensive experience in implementation of BI/ABAP projects specializing in SCM
areas.
Deepak Somani is working as SAP BI Consultant in Accenture Services Private Ltd and
having extensive experience in implementation of BI/ABAP projects across various functional
areas.
SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com | UAC - uac.sap.com
© 2010 SAP AG 1
The Power of Performance Optimized ABAP and Parallel Cursor in SAP BI
Table of Contents
Pre-Requisites .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Database Access Using Select .......................................................................................................................... 3
Internal Table Operations ................................................................................................................................... 4
Parallel Cursor Technique: Overview ................................................................................................................. 5
Need of Nested loop ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Example/Illustration ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Example of a Nested Loop ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Parallel Cursor Approach: Demystified ............................................................................................................... 6
Sample Code & Demonstration ...................................................................................................................... 6
Nested Loop Using Parallel Cursor: ............................................................................................................................. 6
Performance Data Comparison .......................................................................................................................... 7
Related Content .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Disclaimer and Liability Notice ............................................................................................................................ 8
© 2010 SAP AG 2
Pre-Requisites
 Basic understanding of SAP ABAP programming language
 Basic understanding of dataflow in SAP BI 7.0.
Efficient Programming involves solving a problem / defining logic as fast as possible while using
system resources as sparingly as possibly. In context to SAP BI, when multimillion records form the
crux of the tool, the significance of efficient ABAP codes is very high. It is highly recommended to
write performance optimized & fine tuned codes for overall health of the system. As a part of this
write up we will look at some of the very basic and simple to use techniques that if followed and
adhered to can result in highly optimized BI systems.
Database Access Using Select

Some best practices and common tips for considering performance while writing Select statements:
Use Where Clause
Use Select Single
Avoid Select *
© 2010 SAP AG 3
Use ‘For All Entries’
Making use of For All Entries as shown above ensures that we are
selecting only relevant records maintaining best performance
Internal Table Operations

Deleting a Record – for single value condition
Deleting a Record – for multiple value condition
© 2010 SAP AG 4
Modifying a Record
Modifying a record of an internal table consumes time as it copies the entire

dataset into a separate work area. Instead , making use of Field Symbols
improves the performance by 10 times.
Copying a Record/Internal Tables
To Copy data from one internal table into another ( where the two internal
tables are exactly the same ) , make use of the statement as shown above.
Parallel Cursor Technique: Overview

Need of Nested loop
IN SAP BI routines/extractors we come across a lot of situations wherein we loop a header internal table and
carry out some processing for each of the lines in the corresponding Item level internal table. To perform the
same, we end up using nested loops which have a great impact on the performance and result in long
execution times. To overcome the problem mentioned above, we can make use of parallel cursor
technique/approach wherein we maintain a cursor which holds the value of the index from where the
subsequent search should start. This will result in vastly optimized ABAP components which would further
facilitate faster data loading at every step of BI data flow.
Example/Illustration
Say our inner internal table has 1000 records. The second loop i.e the inner loop will operate on the basis of
where condition as per the first loop. To suffice this where condition, the control will actually search the
internal table starting from the first record itself, moving till the last (1000th record). The time it takes for
finding the record will increase for the records that have matches at the end of the internal table. That means
the search will take more time to find the 1000th record than the time it takes to search for the 1st or 2nd
record. This as a result increases the loop & run time which further increases the data load time especially in
a real time scenario when the data count is huge and enormous.
© 2010 SAP AG 5
Example of a Nested Loop

Suppose we have two internal tables IT_EKKO and IT_EKPO containing purchase order header and
item level data and we need to extract some item level details on the basis of PO number which is
common key in both the tables. We will have to put a nested loop here.
Suppose there are 1000 records in table IT_EKPO and for PO 123 there are three records available in
IT_EKPO table.
DATA : it_ekko TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ekko,

wa_ekko TYPE ekko,
it_ekpo TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ekpo,
wa_ekpo TYPE ekpo.
DATA : lv_tabix TYPE sy-tabix.
SELECT * FROM ekko INTO TABLE it_ekko.
SELECT * FROM ekpo INTO TABLE it_ekpo.
LOOP AT it_ekko INTO wa_ekko.
LOOP AT it_ekpo INTO wa_ekpo WHERE ebeln = wa_ekko-ebeln.
Logial ABAP statements ………..
ENDLOOP.
ENDLOOP.
Here when WA_EKKO-EBELN =123 the inner loop will execute 1000 times and statement inside the loop will
execute 3 times. This will result in higher data load runs and poor performance. We can optimize the above
using parallel cursor technique as elaborated below:
Parallel Cursor Approach: Demystified

Parallel cursor is the technique to increase the performance of the program, when there are nested loops.
The approach uses a variable using which we can maintain a cursor which will avoid the search to start
allover again, from the first record. Instead it will control the loop to start the search from a specified index.
This as a result makes the search faster and thus the high end performance improvement is scene in data
loading processes.
A mandatory prerequisite before using the approach is that the internal tables are both sorted by the
respective key fields.
Sample Code & Demonstration
Nested Loop Using Parallel Cursor:

Following are the steps to implement parallel cursor
(a) Sort the internal table
(b) Read the internal it_ekpo with key wa_ekko-ebeln and use binary search. It will give the starting
index of PO 123 in table it_ekpo.
(c) Loop on table it_ekpo from index got from step2 and also put an exit condition of inner loop.
Control will transfer to outer loop as exit condition passes.
CODE
DATA : it_ekko TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ekko,
wa_ekko TYPE ekko,
it_ekpo TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ekpo,
wa_ekpo TYPE ekpo.
DATA : lv_tabix TYPE sy-tabix.
SELECT * FROM ekko INTO TABLE it_ekko.
© 2010 SAP AG 6
SELECT * FROM ekpo INTO TABLE it_ekpo.

SORT it_ekko BY ebeln.
SORT it_ekpo BY ebeln.
LOOP AT it_ekko INTO wa_ekko.
READ TABLE it_ekpo TRANSPORTING NO FIELDS WITH KEY ebeln = wa_ekko-ebeln binary
search.
IF sy-subrc EQ 0.
lv_tabix = sy-tabix.
LOOP AT it_ekpo INTO wa_ekpo FROM lv_tabix.
IF wa_ekpo-ebeln NE wa_ekko-ebeln.
EXIT.
ENDIF.
Logial ABAP statements ………..
ENDLOOP.
ENDIF.
ENDLOOP.
Here when WA_EKKO-EBELN =123 the inner loop will execute 4 times and statement inside the loop will
execute 3 times. This will result in a major performance improvement over the nested loop code elaborated
earlier in the document.
Performance Data Comparison

Parallel cursor technique comes in very handy in SAP BI to optimize the data source extraction process and
write high performance transformational routines. A comparative study in a real time project scenario with
complex business logic defined to populate an enhanced & a newly added field in the following data sources
showcased the high levels of performance improvement that can be gained using parallel cursor approach.
For illustrative purposes, comparisons related to data load time of 3 data sources with enhanced fields and
code defined in the corresponding exit is as below:
Normal Nested Loop Nested Loops with parallel cursor

DS No of records Total Data load Time No of records Total Data load Time
0COORDER_ATTR 185748 45m 6s 185748 4m 6s
0CS_ORDER_ATTR 54522 24m 23s 54522 2m 53s
0PM_ORDER_ATTR 132227 22m 44s 132227 4m 22s
As the tabular detail above demonstrates, using parallel cursor technique we can achieve high level of
performance optimization in SAP BI dataloading processes. The improvement in performance is far more
pronounced when the volume of the data is increased.
Related Content
ABAP Code for Parallel Cursor - Loop Processing
Parallel Cursor Technique
Book - > ABAP Development for SAP BW by Dirk Herzog
For more information, visit the Business Intelligence homepage.
© 2010 SAP AG 7
Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not
supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.
SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document,
and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.
SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or
code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and
services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this
document.
© 2010 SAP AG 8

The Power of Performance Optimized ABAP and Parallel Cursor in SAP BI

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The Power of Performance Optimized ABAP and Parallel Cursor in SAP BI

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The Power of Performance

Optimized ABAP and Parallel

Author: Gundeep Singh, Deepak Somani

Database Access Using Select

Use Where Clause

Use Select Single

Use ‘For All Entries’

Internal Table Operations

Deleting a Record – for multiple value condition

Modifying a record of an internal table consumes time as it copies the entire

Copying a Record/Internal Tables

Parallel Cursor Technique: Overview

Example of a Nested Loop

DATA : it_ekko TYPE STANDARD TABLE OF ekko,

Parallel Cursor Approach: Demystified

Sample Code & Demonstration

Nested Loop Using Parallel Cursor:

(a) Sort the internal table

SELECT * FROM ekpo INTO TABLE it_ekpo.

Performance Data Comparison

Normal Nested Loop Nested Loops with parallel cursor

Disclaimer and Liability Notice

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