SAP HANA Star Schema

Before we move on to SAP HANA Star Schema let us understand first what a Star Schema is.

What is a Star Schema?

Star schema is the backbone of all data warehouse modelling be it SAP or Oracle. It is a fairly simple concept and is really important for any kind of analysis.

Let’s understand this with extending the simple example we had in the Master data Vs Transactional Data tutorial.

Star Schema in SAP HANA explained with an example

We had our master data table as below:

Product Code Description Plant
SH Shoe US1
CO Coat US1
CA Cap DE1

Also, we had our transaction data table as below:

Product Code Date(MM/DD/YYYY) Revenue ($)
SH 1/1/2016 100
CO 1/1/2016 200
CA 1/1/2016 300
SH 1/2/2016 100
CO 1/2/2016 200
CA 1/2/2016 300

Now, for analysis of the transaction data by product and description, we would be required to have connections between the master and transaction table. The overall data model would look as shown below:

star schema sap hana bw on hana

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Doesn’t look like much of a Star for a Star schema model right?

Well, that’s because we are doing a really small analysis here. Let’s assume our transaction data had Customer and Vendor details too. Also, we wanted to do more detailed time based analysis like Year/Month statistics from date.

Let’s see how that data model looks like.

star schema sap hana bw on hana

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This looks more like a star.. right? Well to be honest, it looks more like a 4-legged octopus to me but a Star schema sounds cooler so let’s go with that name.

To conclude, the star schema shows you how the backbone of your data models must look like. This will be much more clearer and fun when we actually start building data models in HANA and BW on HANA.

Note: Prior to the advent of HANA, a model called extended star schema was used in SAP BW which was the best practice for BW running on a legacy database. With BW on HANA, it is no longer relevant and is not discussed in this tutorial. As of BW on HANA 7.5 and Enterprise HANA SP11, a lean star schema approach is what must be followed in all data models. Well, BW does it by itself anyways when on HANA so you can leave it up to the application.

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Until next time. Happy Learning!

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64 Comments

  1. Hi Shyam, Thank you for sharing your real time experience as a book and this tutorial is such a detailed explanation on each topic. I definitely recommend in my SAP circle. Keep it up, you are rocking. Once again thank you for your knowledge share.

    Saicharan.

  2. Hello Shyam,
    I have been reading your Tutorial. Love the way you started from Basic and moved ahead. I am going to forward this to my friends so they can make use of it too . Thank you

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