Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model

Chapter 10. Building Hierarchies

Hierarchies are a much more important part of a Tabular model than you might think. Even though a Tabular model can be built without any hierarchies, hierarchies add a lot to the usability of a model, and usability issues often determine the success or failure of a business intelligence (BI) project. The basic process of building a hierarchy was covered in Chapter 2, but in this chapter, we look at the process in more detail and discuss some of the more advanced aspects of creating hierarchies: when you should build them, what the benefits and disadvantages of using them are, how you can build ragged hierarchies, and how you can model parent/child relationships.

Basic Hierarchies

First, we look at what a hierarchy ...