Supercharge Your SAP BTP HANA Cloud Queries: Real-World Tips for Better Performance

If you've ever built an app or service on SAP BTP that leverages HANA Cloud as its database, you've likely faced the big question: "How do I keep my queries fast, even as data grows and relationships get complex?"

This post brings together real-world experience, SAP documentation insights, and performance-tuning best practices to help you write efficient HANA Cloud database queries, model clean CDS views, use stored procedures wisely, and monitor the system like a pro.

Let’s dive in.

1. Joins Can Be Expensive—Here’s How to Make Them Work for You

Joins are often necessary, but if used recklessly, they can cripple performance. Here are some golden rules:

• Always prefer INNER JOIN over LEFT OUTER JOIN when you're sure the data exists in both tables. LEFT JOIN can bring unnecessary nulls and increase result size.

• Avoid chaining too many joins—especially if you're joining large tables without filters.

• Use join conditions on indexed fields. SAP HANA loves indexes, and if your join conditions aren’t aligned with them, the performance penalty is significant.

• If possible, pre-aggregate data in views or intermediate layers before joining to avoid cartesian explosions.

• Use join cardinality hints correctly in CDS views (e.g., [0..1] or [1..1])—these help the optimizer plan better.

  
  

Pro tip: Run an EXPLAIN PLAN in the Database Explorer to visualize the join execution path. It’ll tell you where the bottleneck is.

2. CDS Views: Clean Design = Clean Performance

CDS (Core Data Services) views are powerful, but they can also become performance landmines.

Here’s what you should always keep in check:

• Avoid SELECT * in views. Only include the fields you actually need.

• Break complex logic into layered views. Instead of one monster view with all business logic, break it down into smaller modular CDS views.

• Don’t use functions inside CDS views (like UPPER, SUBSTRING, etc.) unless absolutely necessary. They bypass indexes and hurt performance.

• Use filters as early as possible, especially in lower-level views. Let the database reduce the result set early.

• If you're building consumption views, make them parameterized when applicable to restrict datasets efficiently.

 Pro tip: Use the Plan Visualizer in HANA Database Explorer to debug slow CDS views. It shows runtime per node, row count, and expensive operations like full table scans.

3. Stored Procedures: Use Them, But Wisely

Stored procedures in HANA Cloud can give you an edge, but don’t overuse them for the wrong reasons.

When should you use stored procedures?

• Complex business logic that’s easier to maintain in one place.

• Batch processing where multiple SQL operations need to be done atomically.

• Pre-aggregated reporting logic that’s reused by multiple services or apps.

• Scenarios where result caching is beneficial, and repeated executions benefit from stored logic.

But remember:

• Stored procedures are not inherently faster—they are faster when they reduce round trips or encapsulate logic that would otherwise run inefficiently on the client side.

• Avoid using too many cursors or nested loops, as these often become performance traps.

Pro tip: Stored procedures can be called from Node.js/Java apps on BTP, or even from within CAP services using custom handlers for heavy-lifting logic.

4. Tuning a Slow Query: Where to Begin

If you’ve got a slow query and you're unsure where to start, follow this game plan:

1. Profile the query in HANA Database Explorer using the SQL Plan Cache and Plan Visualizer.

2. Check table sizes and statistics—you can run M_TABLE_STATISTICS or use HANA Cockpit’s “Table Usage” app.

3. Look for:

   • Full table scans

   • Missing indexes

   • Huge intermediate results

   • High network transfer cost

4. Rewrite the query to:

   • Add filters earlier

   • Use temporary tables for subresults

   • Reduce joins or replace with associations in CDS

5. Test with smaller datasets and scale up gradually to measure cost at each step.

5. How to Monitor & Log Query Performance in SAP BTP HANA Cloud

Keeping an eye on query performance is critical. Here’s how to stay ahead of problems:

🔍Monitoring Tools

• SAP HANA Cockpit – Your go-to tool for real-time monitoring. Look into:

  • SQL Plan Cache (see slow queries by CPU time or duration)

  • Expensive Statements app

  • Performance Load Analysis and Memory Consumption

• HANA Database Explorer – Allows direct inspection of execution plans, stored procedure behavior, and monitoring table stats.

📊 Logging Strategies

• Enable SQL trace (ST05 equivalent) selectively if needed via cockpit or SQL console.

• Log custom performance metrics (timestamp before/after query execution in your application layer) to create your own lightweight logs.

• Use alerts in Cockpit to notify when memory/CPU crosses threshold for queries or procedures.

Final Thoughts

Performance in SAP BTP HANA Cloud isn’t just about writing fast queries—it's about designing with data flow in mind, understanding the tools at your disposal, and profiling your work regularly.

By being intentional with joins, modular with CDS views, strategic with stored procedures, and disciplined with monitoring, you’ll not only reduce headaches—but also future-proof your solution as data scales.

Have more tuning tricks from your projects? I’d love to hear them. Let’s keep this community learning together.