InfoObjects in SAP BW

InfoObject is the smallest building block. You need to use InfoObjects to design or configure other SAP BW objects such as InfoCubes, DataStore objects (DSOs), MultiProviders, queries, InfoSets, and so on.  

InfoObjects can be classified into the following types:

• Characteristics (for example, customers)
• Key figures (for example, revenue)
• Units (for example, currency, amount unit)
• Time characteristics (for example, fiscal year)
• Technical characteristics (for example, request number)

Characteristic:

• This type of InfoObject represents business entities that are the subjects of analysis, for example, product, customer, and marketing regions.

Key figure

• This type of InfoObject represents numeric measures of business entities, for example, weight, number, quantity, and amount.

 Time characteristic

• This type of InfoObject represents the period of the transaction between entities, for example, date of billing, month of sale, and fiscal year. Time characteristics are delivered by SAP and aren’t customizable.

Unit

• This type of InfoObject represents the unit of measure for the numeric measures of business entities, for example, the currency, unit of weight, unit of volume, and so on.

Technical characteristic

• This type of InfoObject represents entities that are internal to SAP BW and are technical in type, for example, a data load request ID. (The data load request ID helps in the maintenance and administration of the SAP BW system.) Technical characteristics are delivered by SAP and aren’t customizable.