Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Types of dimensions
In Essbase, there are two types of dimensions, the first and most common dimension
type is the
Standard dimension
. The other less common dimension type is called an
Attribute dimension
. Both are explained here.
Standard dimension
Standard dimensions are derived from the main business data components (or data
categories we described earlier) and are then defined in a database cube. Some of
the Standard dimensions in our example database are:
TOTAL VEHICLES
,
MEASURES
,
CALENDER PERIODS
,
TOTAL MODEL YEARS
,
CUSTOMERS
,
MARKET
, and
SCENARIO
. These
dimensions can be tagged as Accounts, Time, and Country types. Some dimensions
are not associated with any type of special dimension types and are considered
general dimensions.
Briefly, let's explore the different ways you can tag a Standard dimension and
their uses.
The Account dimension type
When you tag a dimension as an
Account
type, you are telling Essbase that this
dimension will be used for your financial measures or metrics.
Available to the
Account
dimension are several accounting specific tags such as
the
Time Balance
option that uses the
Time
dimension to calculate period specific
data or the
Two Pass
Calculation
option which will calculate the data in two
passes when components of that data must be calculated first from the existing data.
The Time dimension type
The
Time
dimension type is the dimension where you define the periods used to
calculate and report your data. This would typically be the dimension where you
store calendar periods. The
Time
dimension also supports several of the
Accounts
dimension functions.
The Country dimension type
A dimension tagged as a
Country
dimension allows you to analyze your data across
multiple countries, if you desire. You can also set the currency for each country to get
true and current financial data analysis for each local market defined in your database.
