Viewing Member Details
The
capability to "explode" the hierarchical levels of our dimensions to member
children enhances data analysis by allowing business users not only to view
the reports to which they have become accustomed (for example, a trending of
monthly organizational expenses), but also to drill down to the details
supporting any summary value. This allows the analyst to see the details that make
up the value upon which he / she drills down. The beauty of
multidimensional analysis becomes clear, with this interactive ability to find
root causes for changes in activity over time (among myriad other values).
Information consumers can also return to higher levels within hierarchies to
view summary information.
The PivotTable
report / cube combination provides the ability to view various levels of
activity for members as a group, as well as to analyze the details of
summary values on an individual member basis, as we will see. We can
explore the drill-down capabilities of the PivotTable report by
performing the following actions:
11.
Within the Warehouse
column of the existing report, double-click the cell containing USA.
The report drills down to the Warehouse State Province, the immediate children of
the Warehouse Country, as shown in Illustration 21.
12.
Double click
the Washington (WA) Warehouse State Province to drill to its children.
The children of the Washington Warehouse State Province appear, as depicted in Illustration
22.
Illustration 22:
Children of the Washington Warehouse State Province
We can always reverse a drill-down action ("drill
up," as it were) by double-clicking the original drill-down object. We
will short-circuit the process and zoom up to the original Warehouse Country
level, where we began drilling earlier.
13.
Double-click
the USA Warehouse Country once again.
The resulting dataset should resemble that depicted in Illustration
23.
Illustration 23: Zoom Up
to the USA Warehouse Country
14.
Double-click USA again, to expose the three Warehouse
State Provinces once more.
15.
Click (once,
to highlight) the Warehouse State Province level heading (above the CA
member, and to the right of the Warehouse Country column.
16.
Click the Show
Detail button on the PivotTable toolbar (another means of drilling
down to the immediate children), as shown in Illustration 24.
Illustration 24: Another
Means of Drilling Down - All Members of a Level Simultaneously
The
children of all members of the State Province level appear, as depicted in Illustration
25.
Illustration 25:
Children of the Entire State Province Level
Next,
let's assume that we want to hide the "USA" column of
the report (logical enough, if all our stores are located in the United States - the "USA"
level is somewhat redundant, and takes up useful real estate.)
17.
Right-click
the Warehouse Country level heading.
18.
Click Hide
Levels in the context menu that appears, as shown in Illustration 26.
Illustration 26: The
Context Menu - Hide Levels Option
This
leaves us with a view that is more compact, similar to that depicted in Illustration
27.
Illustration 27: The
PivotTable Report, sans the USA Warehouse Country Column
There
are many other options for browsing our cubes, as well as with formatting the
views we generate. It pays to invest some time experimenting with the plethora
of available choices, and determining the combination of settings needed to get
information to the targeted consumers in a fashion that will be most useful to
them. Next, we will delve a bit further into the concepts of adding multidimensionality
to our reports, and demonstrate a straightforward approach to leveraging even
more of the power of our OLAP cube to deliver analysis-focused data.
» 
