SAP BW Read how to handle quotes in description fields

[LeonDuf]

I'm using the SAP BW read tool and the customer description contains a single quote.After reading the BW data with the Alteryx script the customer description returns the value ' instead of a single quote.

[Mchappell67]

Hi -

I just did a quick check and BW Read returns the correct value when the field contains a single quote, e.g. "O'Brien" is returned/displayed correctly.

To clarify, is "customer description" a field or are you referring to the "description" in the metadata?

What is the datatype of the field in question?

Also, are you able to examine the field in question via another method, i.e. a t-code, to confirm that it is stored correctly in the system?

Mark

[LeonDuf]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply.

Below an explanation of the flow of the text through the systems from BW to Alteryx.

In the BW system the description in the Infoobject of the Bill To Party:

In the AFO(Analysis For Office) query output in excel:

Then the Alteryx configuration:

Selection of the Bill To Party field with de “Default Text” using the AFO BW query, shown earlier

The settings for the BW Read Tile

The Connection Configuration in Alteryx

Part of the Alteryx script where I'm using the Browse tile to check the data

After running the Alteryx script to retrieve the BW data, the description of the Bill To Party is shown as below. The quote has been replace by "'". Why? This is very strange. UTF-8 conversion missing somewhere?

If something is not clear then please reach out to me. Thanks for your help.

Kind regards,

Leon

[LeonDuf · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

Problem has been solved. Ingrid from DVW Analytics provided the settings below. Thanks Ingrid.

I also set the below "Split" filter options to "True" and now the quotes are visible.

[Mchappell67]

Hi, Leon -

Glad they were able to help you out.  I've always found them VERY responsive; I usually get a response/contact on the same day that I raise an issue/question.  I've had multiple working sessions with many members of their organization, including the founders and the development leads.  Really a top-notch organization and product.  I wish I had known of Alteryx+DVW when we moved to SAP in 2019 - could have saved time and money by using one platform instead of multiple for our data needs.

Just FYI - the "split" option shouldn't have an impact on how data is displayed.  The "split" only impacts how many times the database is called to reduce the overall resource usage of a single call.  For example, I have this filter setup on a BW Read object:

If "Split" was "False", it would make a single call to the database, which results in an "out of memory" error (in our case/environment).  By calling the DB in 6 smaller chunks, all works OK.

Mark