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The SAP HANA database has its own scripting language named SQLScript. The motivation for SQLScript is to
embed data-intensive application logic into the database. Classical applications tend to offload only very limited
functionality into the database using SQL. This results in extensive copying of data from and to the database, and
in programs that slowly iterate over huge data loops and are hard to optimize and parallelize. SQLScript is based
on side-effect free functions that operate on tables using SQL queries for set processing, and is therefore
parallelizable over multiple processors.
In addition to SQLScript, SAP HANA supports a framework for the installation of specialized and optimized
functional libraries, which are tightly integrated with different data engines of the index server. Two of these
functional libraries are the SAP HANA Business Function Library (BFL) and the SAP HANA Predictive Analytics
Library (PAL). BFL and PAL functions can be called directly from within SQLScript.
SAP HANA also supports the development of programs written in the popular statistics language R.
SQL and SQLScript are implemented using a common infrastructure of built-in data engine functions that have
access to various meta definitions, such as definitions of relational tables, columns, views, and indexes, and
definitions of SQLScript procedures. This metadata is stored in one common catalog.
The database persistence layer is responsible for durability and atomicity of transactions. It ensures that the
database can be restored to the most recent committed state after a restart and that transactions are either
completely executed or completely undone.
The index server uses the preprocessor server for analyzing text data and extracting the information on which the
text search capabilities are based. The name server owns the information about the topology of a SAP HANA
system. In a distributed system, the name server knows where the components are running and which data is
located on which server. The statistics server collects information about status, performance and resource
consumption from the other servers in the system. Monitoring clients, such as the SAP HANA studio, access the
statistics server to get the status of various alert monitors. The statistics server also provides a history of
measurement data for further analysis.
Related Links
SAP HANA SQLScript Reference
SAP HANA Business Function Library (BFL) Reference
SAP HANA Predictive Analysis Library (PAL) Reference
SAP HANA R Integration Guide
2.3 SAP HANA Extended Application Services
Traditional database applications use interfaces such as ODBC and JDBC with SQL to manage and query their
data. The following illustrates such applications using the common Model-View-Controller (MVC) development
architecture.
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