3027725 - When the hierarchy is imported, <root> is automatically created as member if the there is no data for the row in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)

Symptom

The system automatically recognized the members with no hierarchy input as a root member in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)
Blank rows are replaced with <root>

Environment

SAP Analytics Cloud (Enterprise) 2021.2.8
HANA 2.0

Reproducing the Issue

Import Data from OData Services
Select connection x
Select x query
Add dimensions and some with hierarchies in dimension x.
When add hierarchies in the queries than <root> is added if there is no data for the row

Cause

This is a by design behavior.

There are a couple of key concepts to explain first.

(1) In the product UI, when you see the token <root>, it is not the name of a real dimension member. Rather, it is just a visual representation of the notion that there is no more hierarchy parent of the dimension ID -- that dimension ID is at the top of that hierarchy.

(2) When importing data into a dimension, the data import feature takes the columns in source data that are mapped to dimension ID and hierarchy parent to mean bringing all these parent/child pairs into the hierarchy. An empty cell in the parent column at source is interpreted to mean that the dimension ID has no parent and is at the top of the hierarchy. To make this idea apparent, in the data grid of the importing UI, a token in light grey with the label “<root>” is shown. It is not replacing an empty string by the string “<root>”, but rather just to communicate the fact that it is treated as the top level of the hierarchy.

(3) Currently, during data import, if a column is mapped to hierarchy parent, all rows will be brought into the hierarchy. An empty cell does not mean “not belong to the hierarch” (This part is confusing because after the import, if you examine the dimension content, in the dimension UI “not in hierarchy” is shown as blank) The only way to not importing a dimension ID into the hierarchy is to filter out the row, or not map to the hierarchy parent column.

Resolution

With the background information explained in cause tab, it is our recommendation on the import process:

(A) If the dimension has multiple hierarchies, but the hierarchies do not contain the same set of dimension members — in other words, some dimension member belongs to one hierarchy but not to the other -- user should consider doing multiple import sessions, one per hierarchy. In each import, only bring in the rows that belong that particular hierarchy.

(B) Because the token <root> as shown in the UI is not actually the name of a real node, user should not try to enter the string “<root>” in the source data, as it will only generate more confusion.

Keywords

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Product

SAP Analytics Cloud 1.0