About the Series …
This is the second tutorial article of the
series, MDX in Analysis Services. The series is designed to
provide hands-on application of the fundamentals of MDX from the perspective of
MS SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services (to which I will refer in most
cases as simply "Analysis Services" to save time and
space). Our primary focus is the manipulation of multidimensional data sources,
using MDX expressions in a variety of scenarios designed to meet real-world
business intelligence needs.
For more information on the series, as well as the hardware /
software requirements to prepare for the tutorials we will undertake, please
see Tutorial 1: MDX Concepts and Navigation.
Note: At the time of writing, Service
Pack 3 updates
are assumed for MSSQL Server 2000, MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis
Services, and the related Books Online and Samples.
Introduction
In the first lesson of our series,
we set out to develop a broad
understanding of the rudiments of multidimensional expressions by exposing fundamental concepts and terms. We
explored basic MDX syntax, introducing the use of the language to return
information from multidimensional data sources. We created a calculated member, and then
used it as a vehicle from which to navigate the structure of our cube, through
the use of MDX expressions. Using illustrated
examples, we explored ways to return information about members and
practiced using basic conversion functions. Finally, we explored putting
simple conditional tests and comparisons to work in our
expressions.
In this tutorial, we will look beyond using MDX to retrieve member
names and properties, and focus on leveraging the capabilities of
the language to return values from a multidimensional cube. We
will create calculated members / measures that derive their values from current
members / within the context of current measures, to illustrate the
versatility within these arrangements. We will then further explore returning
values from an OLAP cube, taking opportunities along the way to discuss relevant
parts of the MDX system of notation.
