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Difference between CDS type (hdbdd) and HANA type (hdbtable) format/approach

Former Member

Hi Team,

In SAP HANA we can create persistence model either using CDS (hdbdd) format or using HANA type (hdbtable) format.

Can anyone help me understand the basic difference between these two approach??

Any pointers related to this is highly appreciated.

Thanks & Regards,

Anup

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

thomas_jung
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate

HDBDD replaces HDBTABLE.  HDBTABLE receives no further new development or features and only remains for backwards compatibility. That's the main difference.  So if you are starting new you should really only use HDBDD.  HDBDD uses the CDS syntax and includes far more features than HDBTABLE. In addition to just database tables, you can create types, views, and associations. It also has superior lifecycle management features for preserving the data within tables when changes to the data definition are made.

Former Member
0 Kudos

Thanks Thomas for the clarification.

ramu_tankara
Discoverer
0 Kudos

Hi thomas.jung,

I wanted to check if this is still the case in the current day, we had a SAP resource recommending .hdbtable over .hdbcds for creating tables (Sep 2019) in XSA development. What would you recommend? I didn't see any recent posts on these.

Thank you

Damodar

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

thomas_jung
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate

Please note the age of this posting - 2015. The HDBTABLE discussed here is NOT the same HDBTABLE you are talking about. This HDBTABLE is the old repository based psudo-JSON format. Notice the comparison to HDBDD - not HDBCDS or .CDS.

HDBCDS in HDI/XSA is largely replaced in the long term by either .CDS or HDBTABLE/HDBVIEW. .CDS tends to be more database agnostic than the older CDS variant. Therefore when you need HANA specific functionality, you need to drop down into the SQL DDL based HDBTABLE/HDBVIEW. This topic is discussed rather at length in the most recent HANA development openSAP course:

https://open.sap.com/courses/hana7