abap on hana from analysis to optimization

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ABAP for SAP HANA: ABAP on HANA - fromanalysis to optimization

Posted by Manfred Hoffmann Jun 5, 2013

Part 1: Introduction

This document describes relevant steps to maximize the effect of ABAP performance tuning of custom coding

for an SAP System running on HANA DB.

We will focus on tools and guidelines delivered by SAP.

We will start with a procedure how to find candidates (reports, transactions) that show a significant potential for

performance improvements optimizing ABAP coding.

In each section of this document we will discuss different aspects of the optimization starting with the

identification of potential candidates and ending with tips and tricks from real live projects.

The sections are

• The golden rules – Five performance guidelines for ABAP database operations• How to find candidates – Use ST03N• The toolbox – Code Inspector and ABAP Trace• Optimizing ABAP code – Use FOR ALL ENTRIES and JOINs• Tips and tricks – Some hints based on our experience• Code pushdown – Stored procedures and HANA Artifacts

Each of the section can be read individually, but to get most out of this document it is recommended to read

them in sequence.

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http://scn.sap.com/people/manfred.hoffmann

ABAP for SAP HANA: ABAP on HANA - from analysis to optimization


Outlook

In the following section we will discuss the classical programming paradigms and their meaning for

programming on SAP HANA.

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Part 2: The Golden Rules

There are five performance guidelines for ABAP database operations. Despite all changes in the Database

technology that come with SAP HANA, these classic programming paradigms remain valid.

With this in mind, we will put one Key message on top of this chapter

• All classical performance recommendations are still valid

as general guidelines• On SAP HANA some of the recommendations have a higher

performance and some of the classical design pattern are of least importance

Let us have a look at the rules and their meaning as a rule of thumb



What does this mean for our ABAP code? We will know look at each rule what what they mean in the context

of SAP HANA

Rule 1 : Keep the result set small

Rule 2 : Minimize amount of transferred data

Rule 3 : Avoide many small request and selecting not needed columns



Rule 4 : Define and use appropriate secondary indexes

Rule 5 : Keep unnecessary load away from the database



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Outlook

In the next section will will use Transaction ST03N (Workload Analysis) to analyse the workload on our system

and to identify reports and transactions, that can benefit from code canges and gain performance from SAP

HANA.

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Part 3: How to find reports, programs andtransactions optimization



There are several ways to identify reports and transactions that will benefit from code rework.

• Look at reports and transactions that are named by users• Review the EWA report• Follow the procedure described below

We will now describe how to use Transaction ST03N to identify reports and transactions that will potentially

benefit from SAP HANA.

3.1 ST03N - Workload Analysis

With our approach we will gain most from SAP HANA if we focus on ABAP programs with high DB load. The

tool of choice is transaction ST03N (Workload Analysis).

How to proceed? In the following we will show brief step-by-step procedure

Step 1:

Call transaction ST03N

Switch to Expert mode first.

In the Workload tree choose Total

Servers and select the last full month.

In the Analysis Views choose the Transaction Profile folder and choose Standard



Step 2:

Go to tab “All Data” and download the list to Excel.

You can now manipulate the data, e.g. apply filter and hide or delete not columns you are not interested in.

If you remove columns from the list, it is recommended to keep the following ones:

Step 3:

Now we can check where the runtime comes from.

Create two new colums in your Excel to calculate percentage of DB time and

percentage of change time. Use this formula

http://scn.sap.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/38-86600-228008/Capture.PNG



To reduce the number of lines in the result add a filter on Trans/Rep. and apply a textfilter with the restriction to

all names in customer namespace. This will

limit your selection to all transaction and reports that can be changed by a programmer without the need to

modify SAP standard code.

SAP will take care of its own code and provide changes with patches and notes. Certain scenarios will benefit

from SAP Standard Accelerators on HANA (Side Car, e.g. CO/PA Accelerator).

Sort the list by

1. 1. Percentage DB time (ascending) and

2. Percentage Change time (ascending).

Reports will benefit from HANA if DB time is mainly caused by

• sequential reads ( -> column Total Seq. Read time (s) or T Seq.Read Time ) and the• time for changes is rather low ( -> column Total Time for Logical DB Changes (s) or T Changes ).

To identify these reports restrict the result list to reports/transactions with

• DB time high ( >70% ) and• change time low ( <= 1% )

You can do this if you apply a filter on both columns using the values given above.

Finally, the result table should look like this



In our example above we have marked these lines that fulfil our requirement on DB time and Change time in

yellow.

Now you have created a list of candidates for code optimization. In the next sessions we will have a more

detailed look on ABAP programs using SAP tools to identify areas with potential, the possible code changes

and the result of these changes.

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Coming next

In the next section we will have a look at some tools from SAP that will help us with the analysis of our ABAP

code. With this information we can later do changes and also analyze pros and cons of our approach.

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Part 4: Analyze and optimize ABAP Code - static code analysis

4.1 SAP Code Inspector

SAP code Inspector is a tool designed to perform static code checks. For shure it will not find everything, but

you will see it is a fine tool to find and eleminate common mistakes, that are hidden in your code. It is especially

useful if you start working on code that was designed and written years ago and there is a need to find areas

for improvement without spending time for a detailed analysis.

How does it work? We will guide you through the tool without going to all facts and features and will

concentrate us on the checks that will help us on our journey towards performant ABAP code running on SAP

HANA.

Now start SAP Code Inspector and create a new inspection.

Enter transaction code SCI (or /nSCI) and this will lead you to the initial screen



We will run a new Inspection, so enter a name and proceed.




Now choose the object you are interested in. We will analyze a single program, so enter the mandatory data.

You can also check multiple objects, even the contens of a transport request.

Now grab either a pre-defined variant or choose from the list below.

In the first step we will use the four test delivered with 7.40 to identify problematic SELECT statements.



Let's have a brief look at the test we have flagged

Search problematic SELECT* statement

--> This test will find statements selecting all fields. This can be replaced with a field list

Search SELECT . . . FOR ALL ENTRIES-clauses to be transformed

--> Go further and find out, if this can be replaced using a (LEFT OUTER) JOIN

Search SELECT statement with DELETE statement

--> Try to avoid deleting single lines (within a loo), transfor this to an array operation

Search SELECTs in loops across modularization units

--> This will help you to find nested SELECTs hidden in modularization unigs, e.g. in FORMs or ROUTINEs

Now run the inspection and take a look at the result list. In our example, SAP Code Inspector has returned two

areas of concern:



Select a line and double click on it to see the details

Again choose one of the messages to see the details



In our case the system detects a SELECT * statement, and from the analysis less than 10% of all fields

retreived are used. As this analysis is done by an algorithm, it is always wise to review the analysis and decide

based on a code analysis, wich field should be in the field list.

Let's go on, and jump to the affected lines of code. You can do this directly from the result

After this is reviewd and - if possible - fixed return to the result of the analysis and go to the second finding.

Here we are informed of a nested SELECT.



Let us have a look at the new checks added to SAP Code Inspector with focus on efficient ABAP programming

on SAP HANA.

In two sections SAP has added new checks

1. Section Performance Checks has four new checks1. 1. Search problematic SELECT * statements

2. Search SELECT .. FOR ALL ENTRIES-clauses to be transformed3. Search SELECT statement with DELETE statement4. Search SELECTs in loops across modularization units




2. Section Robust Programming has two new checks1. 1. Search problematic SELECT * statements

2. Search problematic statements for unsorted results of SELECT or OPEN CURSOR statements

What does this mean in detail, and what does the check for me? The inline documentation gives us more

information:

.............................................................................................................................................................

Performance Check 1.1: Search problematic SELECT * statements

Search for

SELECT * FROM dbtab statements which should be transformed into SELECT comp1 comp2 ... FROM dbtab.

This check searches for SELECT * FROM dbtab statements where less than a specified percentage of the

fields are effectively used. The default value for the percentage is 20 percent. If less than 20 percent of the

fields are used it is more adequate to select only the used fields.

If single subroutines are specified by the check set, only the coding in these routines is checked.

Check parameters:• • Minimum table size category: with this parameter you can restrict the search on

SELECT-statements that access database tables with a size category that is equal or larger thanthe parameter. The size category is maintained in the technical settings of a database table in theABAP dictionary (SE11).

• Minimum number of table fields: with this parameter you can restrict the search onSELECT-statements that access database tables with equal or more columns than the parameter.

• Only search for these tables: here it is possible to restrict the search to accesses to the selectedtables.

• Percentage of fields: Percentage of used table fields to be considered as "few"• Evaluation level: The evaluation process start at the top level procedures of a compilation

unit and follows the calls to other procedures. With this parameter you can specify the maximalevaluation depth.

• Exclude buffered tables: Normally accesses to buffered tables are analyzed as well. With thisparameter you can exclude it.

• Not to be transformed selects: Display also information about SELECT-statements whichshould not be transformed.

Display detail information: If you switch on this parameter you get very detailed information about the access

to the result of the select-* statements and the evaluation process.

EFFORT-Parameters• • EFFORT for one assignment

• EFFORT for one column access



The check delivers the following result messages: • • FEW SELECT-Statement can be transformed, because less than the specified percentage of

fields is used.• MANY SELECT-Statement should not be transformed, because more than the specified

percentage of fields is used.• EXISTS SELECT-Statement can be transformed very easily, because it is used just for an

existence check. The work area or any of its components are not used.• UNCLEAR The situation for the select statement is unclear because of one of two reasons:

• The result of the SELECT-statement cannot be analyzed further on• The evaluation was aborted because the evaluation level has been exceeded.

If you have switched on to get detail information, there are the additional messages: • • SELECT A SELECT-* statement has been found,

• COMP A component of the result of a SELECT-* statement is used.• ALL The complete result of a SELECT-* statement is used by the current statement.• NOEVAL The current state uses the result SELECT-* and has not been evaluated• LEVEL The evaluation has been aborted at the specified procedure.

The checks delivers the following test result parameters • • SEVERITY The severity is the number of columns of the data base table which are read but not

used• EFFORT The effort is computed via the following formula:

....................................................................................................................................................................................................

Performance Check 1.2: Search SELECT .. FOR ALL ENTRIES-clauses to be transformed

Search for

SELECT ... FOR ALL ENTRIES statements which can be joined with other SELECT statements

This check searches for SELECT ... FOR ALL ENTRIES where the input for the for all entries table is the

result of another SELECT statement. In this case the two statements can be joined into one statement with an

improved performance.

The two SELECT statements can be in different subroutines.

If single subroutines are specified by the check set, only the coding in these routines is analyzed.

Buffered tables, except those with single record buffering, are excluded from the analysis. In this case two

SELECT-statements are more adequate

General parameters:



• • Minimum table size category: with this parameter you can restrict the search onSELECT-statements that access database tables with a size category that is equal or larger thanthe parameter. The size category is maintained in the technical settings of a database table in theABAP dictionary (SE11).

• Only search for these tables: here it is possible to restrict the search to accesses to the selectedtables.

Effort parameters:• • Effort for one assignment: with this parameter you can determine the effort for an assignment of

the internal table that was filled by the select statement to another table.• Effort for each call: with this parameter you can determine the effort of a call between the select

and the select for all entries.

The check delivers the following result messages:• • TRANSFORM The SELECT-FOR-ALL statement can be joined with another SELECT-statement.

The position of the second statement is mentioned in the message text.• LEVEL The evaluation has been aborted at the current procedure, because the maximum

evaluation level has been reached

If you have switched on to get detail information, there are the additional messages:• • NoMoves Number of moves of the internal table

• Effort The effort to correct this problem. It is calculated as follows:• Effort = Effort for each call * number of calls + Effort for one assignment * NoMoves + 10.• Severity The severity of this problem is a measure for the performance loss due to this problem.• It is always 1.

.............................................................................................................................................................

Performance Check 1.3: Search SELECT statement with DELETE statement

Search for

SELECT .. INTO TABLE tab statements which are followed by a DELETE statement for the result table tab .

The checks delivers the following test result parameters• • SEVERITY The severity is always 1

• EFFORT The effort is the distance in lines between the

SELECT and the DELETE statement

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Performance Check 1.4: Search for SELECTs in loops across modularization units



Find database operations in nested loops across modularization units

This check searches for database operations that are nested inside any kind of loop (e.g. LOOP-loop, DO-

loop, ...). If in the loop there is a call to a modularization unit (PERFORM, CALL FUNCTION, CALL METHOD),

then this call is tracked and it will be analyzed, whether there is a database operation in the called unit. This

way, several levels of the call-stack are analyzed (for runtime reasons, there is an upper limit for the call-stack

depth).

What you can do:

If a database operation is executed inside a loop for several entries of the internal table that is processed,

please check whether it is possible to read or write the needed database lines with one database statement

instead. For example, it could be possible to replace the SELECT inside the LOOP with a SELECT ... FROM

dbtab FOR ALL ENTRIES IN itab.

General Parameters:• • Minimum table size category: with this parameter you can restrict the search on those database

operations that access database tables with a size category that is equal or larger than theparameter. The size category is maintained in the technical settings of a database table in theABAP dictionary (SE11).

• Call-stack depth for analysis: this value determines how many levels of the call-stack will beanalyzed below the loop statement. The default value is 3, the maximum value is 10.

• Exclude buffered tables: here it is possible to exclude accesses to buffered tables• Analyze only local procedures: here it is possible to restrict the evaluation to local procedures,

which saves evaluation time• Analyze reading db operations: analyze reading database operations inside a loop, i.e.

SELECT, OPEN CURSOR, FETCH, CLOSE, and the obsolete ones READ TABLE dbtab andLOOP AT dbtab.

• Analyze writing db operations: analyze writing database operations inside a loop, i.e. DELETE,INSERT, UPDATE, and MODIFY

• Analyze EXEC SQL statements: analyze exec sql statements inside a loop

Effort Parameters (determine the effort to correct a problematic statement)• • Effort for db op in loop: with this parameter you determine the effort to remove a loop

surrounding a database statement. The default value is 10.• Effort for each call: with this parameter you determine the effort to remove a loop surrounding a

procedure call that contains a database statement. The default value is 20.

The check delivers the following result messages: • • DBREAD_LOC A reading database operation was found inside a local loop.

• DBREAD A reading database operation was found inside a non local loop• DBWRT_LOC A writing database operation was found inside a local loop.• DBWRITE A writing database operation was found inside a non local loop• EXEC_LOC An exec sql operation was found inside a local loop.• EXEC An exec sql operation was found inside a non local loop

If you have switched on to get detail information, there are the additional messages: • • Table Name Name of the database table concerned

• Nr Loops Number of loops around the database operation• Nr Calls Number of procedure calls around the database operation• Effort The effort to correct this problem. It is calculated as follows:• Effort = Effort for db op in loop + Effort for each call * number of calls



• Severity The severity of this problem is a measure for the performance loss due to this problem.• It is calculated: Severity = number of loops

..............................................................................................................................................................

Robust Programming 2.1: Deepooling/Declustering: Search SELECT for Pool/Cluster-Tables w/o ORDER BY

Search for SELECT and OPEN CURSOR statements for pool or cluster tables where no ORDER BY clause

is specified.

This situation is problematic because the order of the returned database entries changes if the data base table

is modified into a transparent table.

Remark: SELECT SINGLE statement are not analyzed since they are not problematic.

Remark: If the result of the SELECT statement is moved into a sorted internal table, a special message is

raised

Messages of the test can be suppressed via the pseudo comment "#EC CI_NOORDER

.............................................................................................................................................................

Robust Programming 2.2: Search problematic statements for unsorted results of SELECT or OPEN

CURSOR statements

This check searches for the following statements where the internal table is the result of a SELECT statement

without ORDER BY clause. Without ORDER BY clause or other sorting measures the result of the select

statement may be unsorted. So the statements may not work properly.

Check parameters:• • Only local calls: With this parameter you can specify if external procedure call should be

analyzed, too.• Local analysis depth: The evaluation process start at the top level procedures of a compilation

unit and follows the calls to other procedures. With this parameter you can specify the maximalevaluation depth.

• Non-local analysis depth: With this parameter you can specify the maximal evaluation depth intoexternal programs.

The problematic statements are:



What you can do:

There are two (three) possibilities:1. 1. Add an ORDER BY clause to the select statement

2. Add a SORT statement for the internal table3. If no problem exists add the specified pseudo comment

Remark: The SELECT statement and the critical statement can be in different subroutines.

.............................................................................................................................................................

If you want to learn more about SAP Code Inspector follow these links

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ABAP/Code+Inspector

http://www.sap.com/australia/campaign/es-newsletter-q4/code_inspector.epx


http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/ABAP/Code+Inspector

http://www.sap.com/australia/campaign/es-newsletter-q4/code_inspector.epx



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Coming next

In the next section we will continue with will have a look at Transaction /nT05 (SQL Trace) and how SQL Trace

will help us on our journey to performant ABAP on HANA programming.

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Part 5: DB Performance Analysis with SQL Trace

If you experience slow transaction step is mainly caused by one or more long running SQL statements. To get

to the root cause of this problem, do an SQL trace of the process step.

For this start ST05 Aattention: The trace is only performed for the instance you are currentlylogged on, so check Transaction SM51/SM51 before you start). Call Transaction /nST05 andactivate the SQL trace via the ‘Activate Trace with Filter’. In case you have to trace another user andnot your own, add this information to this popup.Remark: You should always use filter criteria, to (a) keep the number of collected data low and (b) avoid

unneccessary load on the system. And always Deactivate Trace after you have finished collecting the required

data.



If the configuration is done, execute the long running statement.

As soon as you have performed the trace, switch of the tracing (Deactivate Trace) and go to Display Trace.

Choose your trace file and display the summarized list.




Sort the lis by e.g. Time to see the time consuming statements.

Select the one you want to get more information and click on the SELECT statement to see the details of the

WHERE clause.






Click on the ‘Explain’ button to see the execution plan of the statement as it is executed by theDB. You can see, if and which index/indices have been usedIn our example no index was choosen and a full table scan was done.

No take appropriate actions and find out, what can be done to optimize this statement.

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Coming next

In the next section we will continue with will have a look at Transaction /nSAT (ABAP Trace) and how ABAP

Trace will help us on our journey to performant ABAP on HANA programming.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------17787 Views Tags: hana, abap, code_inspector, sql_trace, abap4hana, abaponhana, abapforhana,abapinhana, abap_for_hana, abap_trace

Lars Breddemann in response to Markus Zoeller on page 25Jan 20, 2016 1:52 PM

The question is not so much whether there are potentially unnecessary sec. indexes, but rather: of all the sec.

indexes in the system, which ones could potentially be useful?

Since the indexing options, strategies and reasons for Oracle are fundamentally different than for SAP HANA,

the recommendation is: get rid of all secondary indexes (especially those one more than one column) and

review the performance of your application on SAP HANA.

You might want to check SAP notes

2160391 FAQ: SAP HANA Indexes

2000002 FAQ: SAP HANA SQL Optimization

for further reading on this.

Markus ZoellerJan 20, 2016 8:58 AM

Hi All,

is there a good recommendation or approach that describes the analysis to identify potentialy unnecessary

"SecondaryIndices" when moving from classic DB (e.g. ORACLE) to HANA DB.

Thanks and Regards

Markus

Thomas Fiedler

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=hana

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abap

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=code_inspector

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=sql_trace

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abap4hana

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abaponhana

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abapforhana

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abapinhana

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/hana/blog/tags#/?tags=abap_for_hana

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Dec 22, 2015 9:12 AM

Hi Manfred,

we recommend to use the SQL monitor (transaction SQLM) to detect performance issues and optimization

potential in your code.

Optimizing Custom ABAP Code for SAP HANA – The New ABAP SQL Monitor.pdf

In the meanwhile there is also an Eclipse based tooling for SQLM findings:

3 Simple Steps to Identify Performance Hotspots in ABAP Custom Code

Give it a try.

Regards,

Thomas.

Ramesh NatarajanDec 22, 2015 4:58 AM

Each and every points are well explained.

Raghuveer SaireddyDec 21, 2015 1:03 PM

Very well explained, Point to Point.. very well written :-)

Riaz GhouseDec 9, 2015 7:24 AM

Very Helpful and clear

Heecheol YeomJan 14, 2015 10:05 AM

I should say that this is very helpful blog! Thanks for blogging.

I'm already excited to next blog.

Hyuk Joo LeeJan 9, 2015 1:59 AM

Thanks!

Syam BabuApr 15, 2014 9:03 PM

Well Written...Thanks.

Trond StroemmeSep 24, 2013 1:12 PM

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-47444

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/eclipse/blog/2015/10/21/3-simple-steps-to-identify-performance-hotspots-in-abap-custom-code

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Very thorough and useful. But of course the real gain with HANA is pushing code down to the DB layer -

avoiding (too much) Open SQL in your ABAP code.

Simon RotherhamJun 27, 2013 11:57 PM

A great blog that is not just relevant for ABAP on HANA but also relevant for all ABAP developers in order to

produce efficient code.

Abdul HakimJun 10, 2013 12:17 PM

Useful info. Thanks for sharing with the community.

Aby JacobJun 9, 2013 1:20 PM

Excellent !! Thanks for sharing

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