Querying Your Cube - Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development - page 113

Chapter 5. Querying Your Cube
Up until now, you have been mostly working with the development of your first cube.
Now it is time to get an introduction on how you can use it in your queries.
This chapter will cover the following sections:
• Understanding multidimensionality
• Using SQL Server Management Studio to query a cube
• The anatomy of a MDX query
• Excel as a query tool
This chapter is not intended to cover the query language used in cubes called MDX
to its fullest. There are entire topics about just this subject. However, in this chapter
you will get a primer in MDX and how to use it.
Note
The following are all good topics that are worth reading for someone who wants
to get a deeper knowledge of MDX:
• MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook by Tomis-
lav Piasevoli (Aug 9, 2011)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step by Bryan C Smith, C Ryan Clay,
and Hitachi Consulting (Feb 18, 2009)
• MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion
Essbase by George Spofford, Sivakumar Harinath, Christopher Webb, and Dylan
Hai Huang (Mar 6, 2006)
Understanding multidimensionality
The following query is one of the simplest possible MDX queries: