Variables

Variables act as parameters to a Business Explorer (BEx) query. They are filled with values and processed at query runtime.

For example, you might have a BEx query that reports sales for the year 2014. When new data for 2015 becomes available, you do not want to change the year to 2015, but rather want the end user of the query to select which year the query should be executed for.

In that case, you modify (parameterize) the query so that it uses a variable for the year. Then, the end user can specify the year of interest by selecting a value for that variable when the Spotfire analysis is opened.

Note: When working with BEx queries with variables, avoid limiting characteristics using the Limit Data dialog. Data has already been limited by the selections in the BEx variables, so, generally, further limiting is not necessary. Because of restrictions in SAP BW, if you both limit a characteristic and define a BEx variable that filters out values for that characteristic, you might get unpredictable results when loading and analyzing data.

Variables are globally available, so that once they are defined, they are available for use in any BEx query. However, not all variables are available to Spotfire. The underlying SAP BW driver does not return any Text variables. In addition, only variables that have the processing types Manual Entry or Default Value are returned by the driver.

Note: Hierarchy variables are not supported by Spotfire. Hiearchy node variables, however, are supported.