SAP BW Internal/External

Option at Datasource level

Summary
This Document explains about handling External/Internal option at the Data source level
maintenance screen, this document explores usage of External/Internal option and what
scenario we choose one of these selections.
I would like to discuss data source property which is having External/Internal option and it uses and
given below one practical scenario as well.
I am trying to the load the below flat file till PSA, Below given is the structure of my file:

I am able to load the above file to infocube and encountered data load issue:

In the above screen shot I haven't used 0DATE field in my file so how does the error shows 0DATE Info
Object and how the data is corrected?
If you notice the above file the field 0CALDAY is referencing to 0DATE Infoobject. Check the below
screen shot.

How do we address this issue in BW?

Here I am going to discuss the option in data source maintenance screen which is having
External/Internal in format column in proposal tab:

If we observe the above file structure /BI0/0ICALDAY data type is DATS Input length is 8(SAP default)
and output length is 10(which I have given the date value as ex: 28.10.2012) which is 10 digit.
When I load above file to first level PSA the data load went fine, even though the below format is not
correct. PSA is as is data.

When I load the same file to Info cube I got the below error, which is discussed above. The date format
has gone incorrect.
How does External/Internal option work?

Upon Investigating the issue found that SAP the length of 0calday is given as external format where
SAP checks and allow with standard SAP internal format.
If we choose Internal option we have to be very sure that my source returns the data in internal
format only.
Ex: 0CALDAY/Date field always has this format internally YYYYMMDD. So if you are sure that the source
data is sending the same format ex: 20121028 then we can go-ahead and select the Internal option.
In the above case I have selected 0CALDAY is internal and my file is having the date format 28.10.2012
which doesnt meet the SAP standard format because of this I am getting data load error when I am
trying to load the data to IC.
To correct the above issue I choose the "External Format" in the option instead of Internal like below:

I have choose this option when we know that the source data is not in internal format and If we want
the source data format as is to be updated in target we need to select the option as external.
Info cube output:

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