Specifying Members
in a Set
As we see from the
fruits of our labor so far, we can assign sets to axes with relatively
little programming effort. This is particularly true when we can rely upon
many of the default member settings to "fill in the blanks," with regard
to the requirement to supply "addresses" for the values we seek to
retrieve, in terms of all dimensions in the cube. However, to approach the content
of a report that leverages multi-dimensional concepts to produce denser
information in a useful form, we must go further than this. We must be able to
specify individual members, for purposes of extracting precise
information from the wealth of cube data, as well as to be capable of combining
multiple dimensions on a single axis. MDX rises to the occasion, and
supports our need for precise control of the presentation quite well.
Let's explore meeting these
further requirements, with the following steps:
35.
Start a new query using the New
Query button.
36.
Type the following into the Query
pane:
SELECT
{[Measures].[Warehouse Cost]} ON COLUMNS
FROM Warehouse
We
enclose the set we want to retrieve in braces ({}). The
braces inform the application that the enclosed member(s) represent a set.
The
results we obtain should be a single "grand total" for Warehouse
Cost, and should duplicate those shown in Illustration 7.
Illustration 7: the
Grand Total of the Store Cost Measure for the Cube
The focus here is the
selection of an individual measure for placement on the column axis. Our
enclosing the measure in braces defines its status as a set, as we have
noted, which is a requirement for anything that is placed on an axis within
that status.
Now let's say that our
business requirement changes: we are asked to display not only the Warehouse
Cost value, but two additional values, Warehouse Sales and Units
Shipped. We will deliver these tuples with the following enhancement to
our query.
37.
Add the two
additional measures, separated by commas and spaces, to the query as follows:
SELECT
{[Measures].[Warehouse Cost],[Measures].[Warehouse Sales],
[Measures].[Units Shipped]} ON COLUMNS
FROM Warehouse
38.
Click the Run
Query button.
The
results appear as shown in Illustration 8.
Illustration 8: Three
Tuples Yield Three Measure Columns
Our set
now consists of three tuples. We have thus presented a multiple member set,
identifying those members specifically in our query.
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