How to convert from internal to external format

Hi all,

There are a lot of cases where SAP saves a value in the tables with an "internal format", this is really common for example with the dates, but this applies to material, customers, etc.

In the case of a material, SAP saves the value with a lot of zeros in the left 000000000030400580, if we see that value through any t-code or SE16 itself to see the data of the MARA table, SAP shows the value without the zeros 30400580, this is because applies an alpha conversion function that convert from internal to external format the value.

When we go to HANA and we create a calc view, the data is always shown as it is in the table with the interal format, I mean with all zeros.

We recently installed the SPS11 and we realized that in the Semantic node, there are a new section called "Converion Functions", where it seems it is exacly what we were looking for, convert from internal to external a value, and also from external to internal.

The situation I am having, I cannot find any standar function in the box. So, maybe there is something we have to install before using them. Do you know?

I tried to look for in the SCN about this but I could find anything, just the normal conversion functions that we can use for example in calculated columns, such as to_date, to_int, to_decimal, etc.

Thanks, Fede