MSSQL Analysis Services – Attribute Member Names

About the Series …

This
article is a member of the series Introduction to MSSQL Server Analysis Services. The series is designed to
provide hands-on application of the fundamentals of MS SQL Server Analysis
Services
(“Analysis Services”), with each installment progressively
presenting features and techniques designed to meet specific real-world needs.
For more information on the series, please see my initial article, Creating Our First Cube. For the software components, samples and tools
needed to complete the hands-on portions of this article, see Usage-Based Optimization in Analysis Services 2005, another article within this
series.

Introduction

In Dimensional Model Components: Dimensions Parts I and
II, we introduced the dimensional
model
in general, noting its wide acceptance as the preferred structure for
presenting quantitative and other organizational data to information
consumers. We then began our examination of dimensions, the analytical “perspectives”
upon which the dimensional model relies in meeting the primary
objectives of business intelligence, including its capacity to support:

  • the presentation
    of relevant and accurate information representing business operations and
    events;
  • the rapid and
    accurate return of query results;
  • “slice and
    dice” query creation and modification;
  • an environment
    wherein information consumers can pose questions quickly and easily, and achieve
    rapid results datasets.

We
learned, in Dimensional Model Components:
Dimensions Parts I
and II, that dimensions form the
foundation of the dimensional model. They represent the perspectives
of a business or other operation, and reflect the intuitive ways that
information consumers need to query and view data. We noted that we might
consider dimensions as nouns that take part in, are acted upon
by, or are otherwise associated with, the verbs (or actions /
transactions undertaken by the business) that are represented by the facts or
measures contained within our business intelligence systems.

We
discovered in earlier articles that, within the Analysis Services model,
database dimensions underlie all other dimensions, whose added
properties distinguish them from the database dimensions they reference,
within the model. Each dimension within our model contains one or more hierarchies.
As we learn in other articles of this series, two types of hierarchies
exist within Analysis Services: attribute hierarchies and user
(sometimes called “multi-level”) hierarchies. For purposes of
this article, the term “attribute” means the same thing as “attribute
hierarchy
”. (We examine user hierarchies, to which we will simply
refer as “hierarchies,” in other articles specifically devoted to that topic.)

To extend
the metaphor we used earlier in describing dimensions as nouns
and measures as verbs, we might consider attributes as
somewhat similar to adjectives. That is, attributes help us to
define with specificity what dimensions cannot define by themselves. Dimensions
alone are like lines in geometry: they don’t define “area” within
multidimensional space, nor do they themselves even define the hierarchies
that they contain. A database dimension is a collection of related
objects called attributes, which we use to specify the coordinates
required to define cube space.

Within
the table underlying a given dimension (assuming a more-or-less typical
star schema database) are individual rows supporting each of the members
of the associated dimension. Each row contains the set of attributes
that identify, describe, and otherwise define and classify the member
upon whose row they reside. For instance, a member of the Patient
dimension, within the Analysis Services implementation for a healthcare
provider, might contain information such as patient name, patient ID, gender,
age group, race, and other attributes. Some of these attributes
might relate to each other hierarchically, and, as we shall see in other
articles of this subseries (as well as within other of my articles), multiple hierarchies
of this sort are common in real-world dimensions.

Dimensions and dimension attributes
should support the way that management and information consumers of a given
organization describe the events and results of its business operations.
Because we maintain dimension and related attribute information
within the database underlying our Analysis Services implementation, we
can support business intelligence for our clients and employers even when these
details are not captured within the system where transaction processing takes
place. Within the analysis and reporting capabilities we supply in this
manner, dimensions and attributes are useful for aggregation,
filtering, labeling, and other purposes.

Having covered the general characteristics and purposes of attributes
in Dimensional Attributes: Introduction and Overview Parts I through V, we then fixed our focus upon the properties
underlying them, based upon the examination of a representative attribute within
our sample cube. We then continued our extended examination of attributes
to yet another important component we had touched upon earlier, the attribute
member key
, with which we gained some hands-on exposure in practice
sessions that followed our coverage of the concepts. In Attribute
Member Keys – Pt I: Introduction and Simple Keys
and Attribute
Member Keys – Pt II: Composite Keys
, we introduced Attribute Member Keys in detail, continuing our
recent group of articles focusing upon dimensional model components,
with an objective of discussing the associated concepts, and of providing
hands-on exposure to the properties supporting them.

As a part of our exploration of attribute member Keys,
we first discussed the three attribute usage types that we can
define within a containing dimension. We then narrowed our focus to the Key
attribute
usage type (a focus that we developed, as we have noted,
throughout Attribute Member Keys – Pt I:
Introduction and Simple Keys
and Attribute Member Keys – Pt II: Composite Keys), discussing its role in meeting
our business intelligence needs. We next followed with a discussion of the nature
and uses of the attribute Key from a technical perspective, including
its purpose within a containing dimension within Analysis Services.

In Attribute Member Keys – Pt I: Introduction and Simple
Keys
and Attribute Member Keys – Pt II: Composite Keys, we introduced the concepts of simple
and composite keys, narrowing our exploration in
Part I to the former, where we reviewed the Properties
associated with a simple key, based upon the examination of a
representative dimension attribute, Geography, within our
sample UDM. In Part II, we revisited the differences
between simple and composite keys, and explained in more detail
why composite keys are sometimes required to uniquely identify attribute
members. We then reviewed the properties associated with a composite
key
, based upon the examination of a representative dimension attribute,
Date, also within our sample UDM.

In this article, we will examine the attribute member Name
property, which we briefly touched upon in Dimensional
Attributes: Introduction and Overview
Part V
. We will examine the details of the attribute member
Name, and shed some light on how they can most appropriately be used
without degrading system performance or creating other unexpected or
undesirable results.

Our examination will include:

  • A review of
    the nature of the attribute member Name property, and its possible
    roles in helping to meet the primary objectives of business intelligence.
  • A review of
    the nature and uses of the attribute member Name from a technical
    perspective, including its purpose within its containing dimension within
    Analysis Services
    .
  • A discussion surrounding
    some of the differences between attribute Name and Key properties.
  • Mention of
    differences between Analysis Services 2000 and Analysis Services 2005
    regarding the use of expressions within our Name column references;
  • A review of
    the settings associated with the Name property, based upon the
    examination of a representative dimension attribute within our
    sample UDM.

Attribute Member Names

As we
have learned, attributes serve as the foundation for our dimensions
and cubes. To review, we discovered in Attribute
Member Keys – Pt I: Introduction and Simple Keys
that each
attribute, typically based upon a single column (or a named calculation)
within the associated, underlying dimension table, falls into one of three
possible usage roles, Regular, Parent, and Key. We
then focused upon the
attribute member Key
(examining
our subject from the perspective of both a simple key and a composite
key
). As we noted there, the attribute member Key is
critical to the identification of unique attribute members within Analysis
Services
. The Key, we learned, is specified within the KeyColumns
setting, within the Source group of a dimension’s Attribute properties.
(We overviewed the Source properties in my Database Journal
article Dimension Attributes: Introduction and
Overview, Part V
.)

Just as
attribute members are assigned a Key (be it simple or composite) to
uniquely identify them, members can be assigned a Name. A descriptive
name is often more consumer – friendly, and not necessarily a mere luxury:
even if a simple name derived from the Key is sufficiently
understandable to the organization’s information consumers, we would still need
to employ the NameColumn property where a composite key (see Attribute Member
Keys – Pt II: Composite Keys
) is involved; otherwise Analysis Services cannot
determine the appropriate Name to assign.

We do not
have to assign a Name. If we do not, Analysis Services
assigns as the Name the underlying attribute Key column. Such
arrangement might be perfectly adequate for, say, consumers who recognize part
or serial numbers, or other designations, and do not need “English” names, but
in most cases, a Name comes in handy for both analysis and reporting.
Moreover, and, even in cases where everyone doesn’t need it, it can certainly
be suppressed (as in a report), etc., except for scenarios within which benefit
is obtained from its presence. (I have written reports where the consumer could
make the choice at runtime to hide or display the Name, Key or
combination of both, or even to select Name, Key or combination
of both to populate the associated parameter picklist each time the
report is executed.

NOTE: I introduce and examine the intrinsic NAME_VALUE and MEMBER_VALUE properties
(which are derived from the NameColumn and ValueColumn property
settings that we examine within this article), from the perspective of their
use within MDX queries, in my articles Intrinsic Member Properties: The
MEMBER_NAME Property
and Intrinsic Member Properties:
The MEMBER_VALUE Property
. Both articles are members of my MDX Essentials series at Database Journal.

We will gain hands-on exposure to attribute member Name in
the practice session that follows. Before we get started working within a sample cube clone,
we will need to prepare the local environment for the practice session. We
will take steps to accomplish this within the section that follows.

Preparation: Locate and Open the Sample Basic UDM Created Earlier

In
Dimensional Model
Components: Dimensions Part I
, we created a sample basic Analysis Services database within
which to perform the steps of the practice sessions we set out to undertake in
the various articles of this subseries. Once we had ascertained that the new
practice database appeared to be in place, and once we had renamed it to ANSYS065_Basic
AS DB
, we began our examination of dimension properties. We continued
with our examination of attributes within the same practice environment,
which we will now access (as we did within Dimensional Model
Components: Dimensions Part I
and Dimensional Attributes: Introduction and Overview Parts I through V) by taking the
following steps within the SQL Server Business Intelligence Development
Studio
.

NOTE: Please access the Analysis
Services database
which we prepared in Dimensional Model Components: Dimensions Part I (and have used in subsequent
articles) before proceeding with this article. If you have not completed the
preparation to which I refer, or if you cannot locate / access the Analysis
Services
database with which we worked in the referenced previous articles,
please consider taking the preparation steps provided in Dimensional Model Components: Dimensions Part I before continuing, and prospectively
saving the objects with which you work, so as to avoid the need to repeat the
preparation process we have already undertaken for subsequent related articles
within this subseries.

1. 
Click Start.

2. 
Navigate to,
and click, the SQL
Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
, as appropriate.

We
briefly see a splash page that lists the components installed on the PC, and
then Visual Studio .NET 2005 opens at the Start page.

3. 
Close the Start
page, if desired.

4. 
Select File
> Open from the main menu.

5. 
Click Analysis
Services Database …
from the cascading menu, as shown in Illustration 1.

Illustration 1:  Opening the Analysis Services Database ...


Illustration 1: Opening the Analysis Services Database …

The Connect
to Database
dialog appears.

6. 
Ensuring that
the Connect to existing database radio button atop the dialog is
selected, type the Analysis Server name into the Server input box
(also near the top of the dialog).

7. 
Using the
selector just beneath, labeled Database, select ANSYS065_Basic AS DB,
as depicted in Illustration
2
.

Illustration 2: Selecting the Basic Analysis Services Database ...

Illustration 2: Selecting the Basic Analysis Services Database …

8. 
Leaving other
settings on the dialog at default, click OK.

SQL
Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
briefly reads the database from
the Analysis Server, and then we see the Solution Explorer
populated with the database objects. Having overviewed the properties of dimension
attributes
in previous articles, we will continue to get some hands-on
exposure to the Name property for an example dimension attribute
member
, from within our practice UDM.

William Pearson
William Pearson
Bill has been working with computers since before becoming a "big eight" CPA, after which he carried his growing information systems knowledge into management accounting, internal auditing, and various capacities of controllership. Bill entered the world of databases and financial systems when he became a consultant for CODA-Financials, a U.K. - based software company that hired only CPA's as application consultants to implement and maintain its integrated financial database - one of the most conceptually powerful, even in his current assessment, to have emerged. At CODA Bill deployed financial databases and business intelligence systems for many global clients. Working with SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase and Informix, and focusing on MSSQL Server, Bill created Island Technologies Inc. in 1997, and has developed a large and diverse customer base over the years since. Bill's background as a CPA, Internal Auditor and Management Accountant enable him to provide value to clients as a liaison between Accounting / Finance and Information Services. Moreover, as a Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) - a Certified Public Accountant recognized for his or her unique ability to provide business insight by leveraging knowledge of information relationships and supporting technologies - Bill offers his clients the CPA's perspective and ability to understand the complicated business implications and risks associated with technology. From this perspective, he helps them to effectively manage information while ensuring the data's reliability, security, accessibility and relevance. Bill has implemented enterprise business intelligence systems over the years for many Fortune 500 companies, focusing his practice (since the advent of MSSQL Server 2000) upon the integrated Microsoft business intelligence solution. He leverages his years of experience with other enterprise OLAP and reporting applications (Cognos, Business Objects, Crystal, and others) in regular conversions of these once-dominant applications to the Microsoft BI stack. Bill believes it is easier to teach technical skills to people with non-technical training than vice-versa, and he constantly seeks ways to graft new technology into the Accounting and Finance arenas. Bill was awarded Microsoft SQL Server MVP in 2009. Hobbies include advanced literature studies and occasional lectures, with recent concentration upon the works of William Faulkner, Henry James, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Honoré de Balzac, and Charles Dickens. Other long-time interests have included the exploration of generative music sourced from database architecture.

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