Advanced Modeling - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 87

CHAPTER 8

IN THIS CHAPTER

. Parent-Child Relationships

Advanced Modeling

. Attribute Discretization

. Indirect Dimensions

. Measure Expressions

. Linked Measure Groups

I n the previous chapters, we covered basic aspects of multi-
dimensional modeling. In many cases, it would be enough
to build a sophisticated multidimensional model. However,
some business problems may require more complex solu-
tions. In this chapter, we discuss advanced functionality of
Analysis Services.

Parent-Child Relationships

Often in the data model, a dimension is defined not by
multiple attributes and relationship between them but by
parent-child relationship inside one attribute. Let's look at
an Employees dimension as an example. It contains a list of
all the employees in an organization. The hierarchy of the
organization can be represented by levels of management,
where employees of one level report to the employees of
the other level. However, in the real-world organizations,
structure is not that rigid—the office assistant can report to
a vice president, same as the general manager, who has a
few levels of reports. The structure of organization is often
defined as parent-child, where each employee has a
manager. Analysis Services provides parent-child relation-
ship between attributes to enable this functionality.