Advanced MDX - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 157

CHAPTER 11

IN THIS CHAPTER

. Using Member and Cell

Properties in MDX Queries

Advanced MDX

. Dealing with Nulls

. Type Conversions Between

MDX Objects

. Strong Relationships

I n Chapter 10, “MDX Concepts,” we covered working with
simple Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) queries. MDX
is a complex language. To help you take advantage of its
power, we're going to explore advanced MDX capabilities.
You can use the technologies discussed here to make it
easier to get information from your multidimensional data-
base, understand the information as you retrieve from it,
and structure the information that you receive.

. Sets in a WHERE Clause

. SubSelect and Subcubes

Using Member and Cell Properties
in MDX Queries

In addition to values of members and cells, the SELECT
statement returns properties associated with cells and
members. By default, all you can retrieve with the simple
MDX queries that we covered in Chapter 10 is a basic set of
properties. We're going to use member properties and cell
properties to retrieve extended information about the
multidimensional data.

Member Properties

For every dimension member in the system, there are prop-
erties that characterize this member (for example, the name
of the member, its key, its unique name, and a caption
translated to a certain language). There are two kinds of
member properties:

. Intrinsic member properties are available for any

member, regardless of the structure of multidimen-
sional model and content of the data. You don't have