Logical Unit of Work (LUW) and Types of LUWs

Updated May 18, 2018

Logical Unit of Work (LUW )

A Logical Unit of Work (LUW or database transaction) is an inseparable sequence of database operations which must be executed either in its entirely or not at all. For the database system, it thus constitutes a unit.

LUWs help to guarantee database integrity. When an LUW has been successfully concluded, the database is once again in a correct state. If, however, an error occurs within an LUW, all database changes made since the beginning of the LUW are cancelled and the database is then in the same state as before the LUW started.

Types of LUWs

In the R/3 System, there are three terms frequently used in this context:

Database Logical Unit of Work (LUW)

A database LUW is the mechanism used by the database to ensure that its data is always consistent.

SAP LUW

A SAP LUW is a logical unit consisting of dialog steps, whose changes are written to the database in a single database LUW.

SAP Transaction

A SAP transaction is an application program that you start using a transaction code. It may contain one or more SAP LUWs.

Comments

15 Sep 2011 6:10 am rekha
From the point of view of database programming, a database LUW is an inseparable sequence of database operations that ends with a database commit. The database LUW is either fully executed by the database system or not at all. Once a database LUW has been successfully executed, the database will be in a consistent state. If an error occurs within a database LUW, all of the database changes since the beginning of the database LUW are reversed. This leaves the database in the state it was in before the transaction started.