1845471 - The Following Number Range Error Message is Triggered 'Interval with start number XXX and end number YYY must not overlap'

When maintaining number range intervals in one of your BC Views, you get the error message Interval with start number XXX and end number YYY must not overlap, in which XXX and YYY stand for the begin and end number of one of your maintained intervals.

Intervals are considered overlapping if they are part of the same number range object and are overlapping in nature. As no duplicate numbers should exist for the same number range object, overlapping interval definitions are not allowed and will lead to the overlap error message.

The following examples give you an insight into how this overlap check works.  Note that for each number range type, a number length is defined. In the following examples a length of 4 is assumed.

Example 1:  

Interval1:   1000  – 2000

Interval2:   1500  – 2700

For these two intervals, an overlap exists for the numbers between 1500 and 2000.

Result: interval overlap, hence the overlap error message.

Example 2:

Interval1:  1000 – 1999

Interval2:  2000 – ZZZZ

As the second interval contains alphanumeric characters (“Z”), a lexicographic check will be performed.

Result:  the intervals do not overlap.

Example 3:

Interval1   1      – 999

Interval2   1000 – 9999

In case the interval boundaries do not use the complete length of characters and only contain numeric characters, the string will be filled up accordingly till the complete defined length is used.

In this example, the representation of the intervals internally looks as follows:

Interval1 0001 – 0999

Interval2 1000 – 9999

Result: the intervals do not overlap.

Example 4:

Interval1   1-     – 999

Interval2   1000 – 9999

Note that this example is very similar to example 3, but that the begin of Interval1 is defined as “1-“ !

As the begin of Interval1 contains an alphanumeric character, this will not be filled up, leading to the following internal representation of the intervals as follows:

Interval1   1-     – 0999

Interval2   1000 – 9999

As the first interval contains alphanumeric characters (“-”), a lexicographic check will be performed from left to right, with the result that the boundary 1000 of Interval2 lies within Interval1, and thus meaning an overlap!

Result: interval overlap, hence the overlap error message.

In case you get this overlap error message, have a look at your defined intervals and adapt your begin / end numbers to resolve this overlap.

In the very rare case, that you get this error message when trying to access your Business Configuration and your implementation project is shown as inconsistent and thus not editable anymore by you as the user, please create an case and get in contact with the Support to resolve this error.

See also case documents

• 1468023 on the overlap of number ranges for employees and service agents
• 1466567 on how to define an Employee ID using alphanumeric characters

KBA , AP-RC-BCT , Business Config. Tools (SAP Business ByDesign , How To