Bad Data When Activating ODS data

[Former Member]

I have worked on SAP 11 years 3 as an ABAP developer and in the BW area for 8. It has frustrated me that SAP does not provide a way to view data in hex. That frustration has multiplied over the past week as we have tried to load high volumes of CO Actuals data and keep having to back out requests in ODS's to find invalid characters and fix them. The messages that SAP produces gives us the position however the hex display of the data in the error message cuts off before the position with the error. We put code in to catch bad characters using the valid characters for ALL_CAPITALS yet we still had a failure. So we were wanting to see the actual character. Can anyone tell me how to view PSA data in hex? This seems to be a simple function especially for someone who worked on the mainframe for 14 years and could turn hex on at any time.

Thanks

Kenneth

Edited by: Kenneth Vance on Nov 19, 2011 11:37 PM

Edited by: Kenneth Vance on Nov 19, 2011 11:38 PM

[former_member215845]

Hello Kenneth,

You can view the hexidecimal values in the debugger in RSA3 on the source system;

When the debugger starts you should see the line

CALL FUNCTION l_fname

Single step at this line and now the extractor is called. The table

e_t_[extract structure name]

will be filled with the data. You can then view the individual values in the internal table and the hexidecimal values are displayed.

Best Regards,

Vincent

[Former Member]

Thank you Vincent for the reply. Yes that would work. I was however hoping to find a way to view the PSA data instead of having to go back to RSA3. It's just a pain to have to have to find the value in error and then log on to the source system and then run the extractor checker and this only would work for R/3 extraction. It's a frustration I have had with SAP since I started working on it. I do not understand why view in hex is not an option through SE16. Seems a simple requirement for technical people. The other frustration is the error message that SAP produces when the problem is found in the activation. If you have a long field the hex display truncates. SAP can tell you the position the should be able to display just that value.

Thanks

Kenneth

[Former Member]

I agree with you Kenneth. But I also appreciate Vincent for a good tip.

Edited by: Passing By on Nov 22, 2011 8:05 PM

[Former Member]

Vincent,

So SAP has no other way to view data in hex but running it through RSA3? If not how do I open a request to have a tool created to allow the viewing of data in hex? Your suggestion is possible but terribly slow. Having to identify the data, find the appropriate selection criteria for the particular extractor and running it through debug is terribly time consuming and not something that lends itself to a production support environment. In my opinion it is a significant gap in the SAP software. It seems to be that it should be an option in SE16. Another gap is the lack of a tool to run a native sql statement. In some cases we can't get record counts because SE16 runs the record count in foreground.

[MartinMaruskin]

HI Kenneth,

I understand your frustration. Someone in this thread suggested to open development message on OSS and ask for that functionality. That would cost money I guess. Another way how to suggest to SAP that this is missing functionality is to add it to SAP's Idea Place:

https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/ideas

direct link for ideas related to SAP BW:

https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/ideas/datawarehousing

[Former Member]

That would cost money ? maybe but money well spent ! itu2019d add value to SAP. Iu2019m not a mainframe guy but I did view hex in mainframe once long time ago. I see what Kenneth meant.

[MartinMaruskin]

Hi guys,

as already suggested above. There is a workaround available - in debugger mode you can see values in Hex. You do not even need to do it in source system - via extractor checker. You can also switch into the debugger in PSA table.

I do not defend SAP I missing this functionality as well. Therefore following either via Idea Place or as per following Notes:

Note 397871 - Solution only possible via customer project

Note 11 - Requested function is not in standard system

https://ideas.sap.com/

[Former Member]

Thanks Martin for the response. I assume you are referring to debugging the dtp in 7.0 or the load from the psa if using the 3.5 method. I understand and have used the many times to work through issues but again that is a very tediious, inefficient and cunmbersome way to try to view one field in one record. I have already checked into submitting the idea through idea place. I also plan to push through our TQM.

Thanks

Kenneth

[Former Member]

Thank you for the supports.