Material Number Field Length Extension

[Former Member]

Material Number Field Length Extension in SAP S/ 4 HANA.

This document is only intended to introduce reader's with the new material number range changes and the way to use it in new up gradation i.e SAP S/4 HANA.

With SAP S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511, the maximum field length of the material number is extended from 18 to 40 characters.

The material number field length extension was done with SAP S/4HANA and is available within the SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 and SAP S/4HANA, cloud-edition 1511.

Extending the material number on the database means that the field length of the MATNR field on the database has been extended from 18 to 40 characters. This has been done in all tables (and all fields within the tables) in which a material number can be stored.

Although the maximum length of the database field used to store the material number is now 40 Characters, the way how the material number content is stored in the database field has not been changed compared to SAP Business Suite. This means that for such fields usually no data conversion is needed when converting from SAP Business Suite to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511.

The default setting, both after the move to SAP S/4HANA and for new installations, is that the extended material number functionality is NOT activated. To use a material number with 40 characters, the customer needs to activate this functionality. The following settings are required for that:

1. Activation of the Extended Material Number Functionality

IMG --- Cross-Application Components -- General Application Functions -- Field length extension -- Activate extended fields.

Alternative:

Transaction FLETS (For the table maintenance the authorization group FLE [authorization object S_TABU_DIS] is required).

2. Changing the Material Number Format.

Transaction OMSL allows a customer-specific settings regarding the material number field length. Here the settings need to be adapted to allow a field length of more than 18 characters

Define Output Format of Material Number can be accessed via --- IMG (Logistics General -- Material Master -- Basic Settings).

Note:-

If the extended material number functionality is activated in a system, it cannot be easily deactivated as values may exist in different fields that are only allowed with extended material number.

SAP Notes and Restrictions related to Material Number Field Length Extension

It´s recommended to execute conversion pre-check (for details see SAP Note: 22169580). For the conversion of selection variants see SAP Note 1696821 for details

Restrictions need to pre- check.

• SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 restriction note (general): 2214213

• Collection of restriction related to MFLE: 2233100.

1. ALE generation for BAPIs: SAP Note 2232497

2. Extended Material Number in Suite Integration: SAP Note 2232396

3. Extended Material Number Display in Archived Data: SAP Note 2232391

4. Length of Customer and Supplier Material Number: SAP Note 2232366

5. Extended Material Number in LIS: SAP Note 2232362

6. Product Structure Browser: SAP Note 2229892

7. Characteristic Values in PLM: SAP Note 2229860

Thanks,

Vishal