BI Table Types (MD, SID, DIM, etc)

Attribute tables:

• Attribute tbl for Time Independent attributes:
• /BI*/P<characteristic_name>
• stored with characteristic values

Attribute tbl for Time Dependent attributes:

• /BI*/Q<characteristic_name>
• Fields DATETO & DATEFROM are included in time dependent attribute tbl.
• stored with characteristic values

Dimension tables:

• Dimension tbls (i.e. DIM tables): /BI*/D<Cube_name><dim.no.>
• stores the DIMID, the pointer between fact tbl & master data tbl
• data is inserted during upload of transact.data (data is never changed, only inserted)
• Examples:
  • /bic/D(cube name)P is the package dimension of a content cube
  • /bic/D(cube name)U is the unit dimension of a content cube
  • /bic/D(cube name)T is the time dimension of a content cube
  • /bic/D(cube name)I is the user defined dimension of a content cube

External Hierarchy tables:

• /BI*/I*, /BI*/J*, /BI*/H*, /BI*/K*
• /BI0/0P...
• are tables that occur in the course of an optimized preprocessing that contains many tables.
• bic/H(object name) hierarchy data of object
• For more information see Note 514907.

Fact tables:

• In SAP BW, there are two fact tables for including transaction data for Basis InfoCubes: the F and the E fact tables.
  • /bic/F(cube name) is the F-fact table of a content cube
  • /bic/E(cube name) is the E-fact table of a content cube
• The Fact tbl is the central tbl of the InfoCube. Here key figures (e.g. sales volume) & pointers to the dimension tbls are stored (dim tbls, in turn, point to the SID tbls).
• If you upload data into an InfoCube, it is always written into the F-fact table.
• If you compress the data, the data is shifted from the F-fact table to the E-fact table.
• The F-fact tables for aggregates are always empty, since aggregates are compressed automatically
• After a changerun, the F-fact table can have entries as well as when you use the functionality 'do not compress requests‘ for Aggregates.
• E-fact tbl is optimized for Reading => good for Queries
• F-fact tbl is optimized for Writing => good for Loads
• see Note 631668 

Master Data tables

• /BI0/P<char_name>
• /bic/M(object name) master data of object
• Master data tables are independent of any InfoCube
• Master data & master data details (attributes, texts & hierarchies) are stored.
• Master data table stores all time independent attributes (display & navigational attribues)

Navigational attributes tables:

• SID Attribute table for time independent navigational attributes: /BI*/X<characteristic_name>
• SID Attribute tbl for time dependent navigational attributes: /BI*/Y<characteristic_name>
• Nav.attribs can be used for naviagtion purposes (filtering, drill down).
• The attribs are not stored as char values but as SIDs (master data IDs).

P table:

• P-table only gets filled if you load master data explicitly.
• As soon as the SID table is populated, the P tbl is populated as well

SID table:

• SID tbl: /BI*/S<characteristic>
• stores the char value (eg customer number C95) & the SID. The SID is the pointer that is used to link the master data tbls & the dimension tbls. The SID is generated during the upload (uniqueness is guaranteed by a number range obj).
• Data is inserted during the upload of master data or of transactional data

S table gets filled whenever transaction gets loaded. That means if any new data is there for that object in the transactions then SID table gets fillled.

Text table:

• Text tbl: /BI*/T<characteristic>
• stores the text for the chars
• data is inserted & changed during the upload of text data attribs for the InfoObject
• stored either language dependent or independent

M - View of master data table 

Q - Time Dependent master data table 

H - Hierarchy table 

K - Hierarchy SID table 

I - SID Hierarchy structure 

J - Hierarchy interval table 

S - SID table 

Y - Time Dependent SID table 

T - Text Table 

F - Fact Table - Direct data for cube ( B-Tree Index ) 

E - Fact Table - Compress cube ( Bitmap Index )