Adding Calculations to the Cube - Expert Cube Development with SSAS Multidimensional Models - page 139

Adding Calculations
to the Cube

This chapter explains how to enhance the analytical capabilities of our cube with MDX
calculations. Calculations, especially calculated members, are very common in cubes as
they are a very easy and convenient way to generate new and useful business metrics
from the basic values you have imported from your data warehouse.

This chapter does not cover basic MDX concepts, although we will provide several
examples of MDX usage. For a complete reference of the MDX language, or for a
thorough tutorial, you should refer to other topics, such as MDX Solutions , Fast Track to
MDX , Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step , or MDX with SSAS 2012 Cookbook .

Reading this chapter, you will learn about:

• The different kinds of calculated members
• Several ready-to-use examples of calculated members
• The difference between using calculated measures and calculation dimensions
• Defining and using named sets

Different kinds of calculated members
There are three kinds of calculated members:

• Query-scoped calculated members : These are calculated members

defined in the WITH clause of an MDX query. They are specific to the query
and cannot be referenced outside it. They are very useful to developers
for testing, debugging, and ad hoc reporting, but as defining a calculated
member requires knowledge of MDX, it is not something a normal end user
will be able to do.