About the Series …
This is the seventh article of the
series, MDX Essentials. The primary focus of this series is an
introduction to MDX. The series is designed to provide hands-on application of
the fundamentals of the Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) language,
with each tutorial progressively adding features designed to meet specific
real-world needs.
For more information about the series in general, as well as
the software and systems requirements needed for getting the most out of the
lessons included, please see the first article, MDX at
First Glance: Introduction to MDX Essentials.
Note: Service Pack 3 updates are assumed for MSSQL
Server 2000, MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services, and the related Books
Online and Samples.
What We Accomplished in our Last Article
In the sixth article of the series, MDX Member Functions: More "Family"
Functions, we
continued the multiple-article Member Functions segment that focuses upon the member functions (and
operators, as appropriate) one at a time, contrasting the uses and effects of
each. Specifically, we exposed the .FirstChild, .LastChild,
.FirstSibling and .LastSibling functions, examining the output returned from each
and syntax considerations involved in their use. We practiced putting these
additional "family" functions to work through practice exercises, and
then reviewed individually the datasets that were returned.
As a part of the lesson, we also examined
the effects of using combinations of various "family" functions, and
used the NON EMPTY keywords to remove
empty intersects from our result sets.
Our last lesson served as
the third session within our Member Functions group of articles.
In this lesson, we complete our examination of the member functions and
operators, introducing and exploring the Cousin () Function. We will discuss the slightly more challenging Cousin()
function in detail, illustrate the syntax that is appropriate for its effective
use, and then test our understanding of how to leverage this remaining "family"
function by undertaking relevant practice exercises. Finally, we will comment
on the results we obtain using the Cousin() function, and discuss some
of the limitations that are inherent in its use.
