Analyzing Cubes using Office Client Components - Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX - page 775

Creating a Pivot Table against Analysis Services Data
As you can see, the pivot table helps you to view multidimensional data in a
two-dimensional nested tabular form. Normally, you will find that users only
pivot on two or three dimensions at a time while engaged in data analysis.
The reason for this is simple: if you add fourth and fifth dimensions to a pivot
table, the results become so complex as to hinder understanding. The pivot
table client component helps you visualize the interactions between dimen-
sions, and if used properly will, in fact, facilitate insights about the nature of
the results being analyzed. To create a pivot table using Analysis Services
data as the source to populate the table, work through the following steps.
1. Deploy the Adventure Works sample project shipped along with Ana-
lysis Services 2005. It is available for install with SQL Server 2005 if
you don't have it loaded already.
2. Launch Excel and create a new worksheet. Click the Data menu item
and select Pivot table and Pivot Chart Report … You will now see the
Pivot Table and Pivot Chart Wizard, as shown in Figure 15-1 .
Figure 15-1
You can create pivot tables from different data sources including data within
an Excel sheet. In this example you will retrieve data from Analysis Services
2005. To specify the Analysis Server, select External data source and click
Next.