Characteristic Usage & Block characteristics in Planning funcitons

Question

Hi All,
          I would like to know how to use "characteristic Usage" in planning functions, ie,, its functionality.
I have gone thru sap help regarding this, it mentions something about block characteristics being formed internally.
I am confused as to how the characteristics are termed block characteristics., and the logic behind it.
I feel that without proper knowledge about this, writing Fox formulas would be inadvisable.
Any help with examples would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Tarak

Answer 1

In Characteristic usage tab, you choose the fields which can be changed and which can be used for conditions.
All the remaining char. which are not chosen in this tab will form a block. and the code runs for each combination these characteristics.
Cube1
Country   SalesOrg    Material    Qty    Amount
C1            SO1              M1         100
C1            SO2              M1         200
C2            SO3              M1         300
C1            SO1              M2         100
C1            SO2              M2         200
C2            SO3              M2         300
Cube2
Country        Material     Price
C1                 M1              1.1
C1                 M2              1.2
C2                 M1              1.3
C2                 M2              1.4
Now you want to calculate the amount by calculating qty * price which are at different granular level.
So you have to choose the differentiaing char. in the field to be changed which is SalesOrg, InfoProvider and Key figure name.
So the remaining char. Country, material will form as block characteristics,
So the data block is
C1  M1  ->  This block contains  records 1 and 2 from cube1 & 1st record from cube2.
C1  M2  -> This block contains  records 3 and 6 from cube1 & 2st record from cube2.
C2  M1
C2  M2
For each combination of country and material, the code runs once.
And the code is
FOREACH SalesOrg.
{Amount, SalesOrg, Cube1} = {Qty, SalesOrg, Cube1} * {Price, #, Cube2}.
ENDFOR.
Hope this is clear. To learn how to write FOX code, check the below document.
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/events?rid=/library/uuid/9af68206-0801-0010-029c-c586c707fc80&overridelayout=true