The 1 Million Cell Limit when extracting BEX Queries and InfoCubes with the BWCube component from SAP BW

The BWCube component enables you extracting a BEX query or an InfoCube via the MDX Interface.
The MDX interface of the SAP BW system has a known restriction, if the Result contains too many cells (more than 1 million cell).
SAP officially states: "In general the MDX interface is not suitable for accessing mass data".

In this blog I will show you how to proceed in this case.



1. Case
Starting with SAP Netweaver BI
- version 7.01 SP2 or higher (7.0 with ehp1 and support package 2 or later) or
- version 7.11 with support package 00 or higher (SAPKW71100)
SAP has released new BAPIs that remove this limitation.
To use the new BAPIs please select Settings -> "Use new OLAP BAPIs" in your BWCube component.
If you don't have this setting, be sure to download the last version from our Website.

2. Case
If your SAP Netweaver BI version is older than above mentioned

First Option: Break the dataset in smaller datasets with less than 1 million cells by using variables (e.g. Year, Month, Product and so on).
Loop over the attributes to extract all the data.

Second Option: Break the dataset in smaller datasets with less than 1 million cells by adding only dimensions (InfoObjects)
and key figures that you need.

In either cases we recommend to set the setting Package Size
in the BWCube component to a value (e.g. 20000) and set the decimal separator (that is . in english SAP systems and , in german SAP systems).

If you don't have this setting, be sure to download the last version from our Website.
For more Information refer to SAP Note 1232751.