1.05-12 Use formulas to derive properties of the list

rob_marshall

Based off the code of the list it should be possible to derive the attributes; Calculating the values is more efficient than storing text fields

 

Best Practices article:

Data Hubs Purpose and Peak Performance

Misbah

Rule 1.05-12 Use formulae to derive property of the list. Based off the code of the list it should be possible to derive the properties, calculating the values is more efficient than storing text fields”. It goes against P elements of PLANS if you wish to do so.

Here is how it was done in Pre Planual Era:  

If source file had a unique code or name then during data load we used to load the list and dump everything else in list properties. If source file had 5 different columns, Anaplan used to have 5 properties to store data for those 5 columns.

If source file didn’t have unique code or name then we used to make it even worse for engine to create a unique code by combination of properties and then load the columns again into the list properties.

To give you an idea how terrible this is for an engine: Importing 10 million transactions into Anaplan based on the combination of properties never finished and it timed out after 24 hours, locking the model. Had to raise a ticket with Anaplan Support to cancel the job and unlock the model

What is wrong with this method?

1. It impacts the performance of the model.
2. System has to create change logs and then record it in history thus taking time.
3. Since it is just an import we are not exploiting the potential of Hyperblock

Here is how it should be done in Planual Way:

 Prerequisites: You need to ask your source data provider to concatenate every column and create a code out of it and to provide you two files – one which have just Codes and another file which will have data associated to these codes. Remember this code has to be less than 60 characters otherwise Anaplan will kick out entries with more than 60 characters

Step 1: Once you have your file ready load the name and code into the list and nothing else gets loaded.

Step 2: Create a system module dimensioned by the same list that you just created in Step 1 and insert line items to write the formula to split the code and ultimately converting text formatted line items into list formatted line items with the help of Flat lists

While performing Step 2 do not clutter expressions, it is a system module and it won’t have much impact on the model size. It will boost the performance of the model if you keep the expressions neat and clean. Also try to go sequentially and find all the delimiters first and do not hardcode the position of delimiters in your formula. It will save you from a lot of pain. For example instead of writing LEFT(Code, 2) it is better if we keep it dynamic as Left(Code, Find 1^st Delimiter -1)