Technical data

CHAPTER 6

Creating Dimensions

This chapter provides an overview of d imensions and discusses how to:

• Create a new dimension.

• Define dimension properties.

• Attach a dimension to a data cube.

• Change the order of d imensions in the part browser.

Understanding Dimensions

A dimension is a collection of people, places, events, or things for which you want to keep data. Each member

of the dimension is called a dimension member.

See C

hapter 9, “Creating Hierarchies,” Understanding Dimension Members, page 73.

To keep data for each member of the dimension, attach the dimension to one or more data cubes. For example,

to keep sales data for multiple products, attach a PRODUCTS d imension to a SALES data cube. To track the

cost of goods for each product, attach the PRODUCTS dimension to a COST_OF_GOODS data cube.

Note. When a cube collection is mapped to either a Writable-only record or a record with the Readable and

Writable attributes, all data cubes in the cube collection should share the sa me set of dimensions .

Because dimensions receive data from fields, it is important to correctly set the attributes of field definitions to

ensure compatibility. You can map fields with the following attributes to dimensions:

•Char

• Number

• Signed N umber

•Date

•DateTime