SAP BI: Comparative among ABAP, SQL Script, Python or CDS View

Performance: SQL Script is the most optimized for performing queries directly on SAP HANA. SQL Script allows you to write procedural SQL that executes on the HANA database server itself, leveraging HANA's in-memory capabilities. It’s specifically designed to take advantage of HANA’s parallel processing and data locality, which can result in significantly faster execution compared to other languages, especially for complex queries and large datasets.
When to Use: SQL Script is typically the most performant choice when working with complex transformations, aggregations, or when you need to execute high-performance queries directly within the database.
Example: Writing a stored procedure or function in SQL Script is the preferred way to perform database-level operations efficiently.

Performance: CDS Views provide an abstraction layer over SQL but are highly optimized by the HANA database. They allow you to define data models that are automatically optimized by HANA. When used in the context of ABAP or SAP Fiori applications, CDS Views often translate into SQL queries at runtime, but they benefit from automatic optimizations and seamless integration with S/4HANA and SAP BW.
When to Use: CDS Views are best used when building ABAP-based applications or SAP Fiori apps, as they provide a layer of reusability and are semantically rich, which makes them suitable for business scenarios. They are particularly useful when you need to expose data from HANA in a consumable way for SAP applications.
Example: A CDS view might be used for simplifying access to HANA tables for reporting or integration with other SAP services.

Performance: ABAP queries generally perform worse than SQL Script or CDS Views in terms of raw execution speed, as ABAP typically sends SQL queries to the HANA database for execution. While ABAP has the ability to push some logic to the database (e.g., via Open SQL or HANA-optimized Open SQL), it is more suited for orchestrating business logic than performing computationally intensive operations.
When to Use: Use ABAP when you need to integrate the data retrieval into SAP business processes or reports, or when business logic (like validation or data transformation) must be applied in the application layer before executing a query.
Example: ABAP is great for orchestrating background jobs that need to query HANA, but it's often slower when compared to SQL Script or CDS Views for direct data retrieval.

Performance: Python is excellent for rapid development and data science workflows, but it’s typically the least performant for querying HANA directly, as it requires an additional communication layer between the HANA database and the Python application. While Python libraries such as pyhdb or hdbcli (HANA Database Client) allow you to query the database, these tools do not leverage HANA’s in-memory capabilities to the same extent as SQL Script or CDS Views.
When to Use: Python is best suited for data extraction, ETL pipelines, or machine learning use cases, where the complexity lies in data processing or analysis rather than raw query performance.
Example: Python is useful for fetching data from HANA and performing subsequent data analysis or machine learning tasks but is slower compared to SQL Script when simply querying the database.

For pure database query performance, SQL Script is the best option.
CDS Views are optimal when building SAP applications or when working in an ABAP environment that needs data modeling.
ABAP is suitable for integrating SAP logic with queries but is generally slower for querying data compared to SQL Script or CDS Views.
Python should be considered when integrating data science workflows or working outside the SAP application layer.

Btw this article was partially written by AI ChatGPT4.0

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