Difference between 2 AP Data Sources

Question

Hi guys
We are on ECC6 and BI 7...We have to developed a data model for 6 reports with 0IF_AP_4 Data Source for Procurement...also for one of FI report (Vender Spint) we need to know whether we can use the same data source 0FI_AP_4 or we need to use the 0FI_AP_6 which is already delivered for Vendor Spend report ..But If we want to use AP_6 Data source we need to enhance this Data source with PRCTR as we need it for our reporting requirement..So we didnt find the corresponding table for it ..When we enhanced it with BSEG table, we are unable to populate the PRCTR with the keys in both extractor and DS..
Now In our AP_4 DS we already have PRCTR available (We enhanced it with BSEG)...and all fields are available for vendor Spend Report...But Our concern is Whether AP_6 and AP_4 will produce the same data...?/ Is there any thing we miss if we use AP_4 for Vendor Spend? If we can simply use AP_4 DS for Vendor spend Report..what is the use of AP_6 ..Why SAP Delivered a complete flow from DS to Cube for Standard Vendor Spend report?
Any guidelines please...
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You are running into a problem casting your character variables into dates. As you can see here, it is not such a good idea to let the database do this for you...
WITH temp AS
SELECT SYSDATE start_date FROM dual
SELECT *
FROM   temp
WHERE START_DATE >= &BEGIN
AND start_date <= &END + 1;
Enter value for begin: '01-dec-07'
old   7: WHERE START_DATE >= &BEGIN
new   7: WHERE START_DATE >= '01-dec-07'
Enter value for end: '01-jan-08'
old   8: AND start_date <= &END + 1
new   8: AND start_date <= '01-jan-08' + 1
AND start_date <= '01-jan-08' + 1
ERROR at line 8:
ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected DATE got NUMBERBut if you wrap the character strings with to_date()....
WITH temp AS
SELECT SYSDATE start_date FROM dual
SELECT *
FROM   temp
WHERE START_DATE >= to_date(&BEGIN,'DD-MON-YY')
AND start_date <= to_date(&END,'DD-MON-YY') + 1;
Enter value for begin: '01-DEC-07'
old   7: WHERE START_DATE >= to_date(&BEGIN,'DD-MON-YY')
new   7: WHERE START_DATE >= to_date('01-DEC-07','DD-MON-YY')
Enter value for end: '01-JAN-08'
old   8: AND start_date <= to_date(&END,'DD-MON-YY') + 1
new   8: AND start_date <= to_date('01-JAN-08','DD-MON-YY') + 1
START_DAT
18-DEC-07And to be absolutely correct, you should actually use a format mask with a full YYYY and supply a full year with your variables.
Greg