Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step

Creating Virtual Dimensions

These settings affect only the efficiency of retrieving rows from the relational data source. To improve the efficiency of building the cube itself, you can create virtual dimensions. Each dimension you add to a cube contributes substantially to the complexity of the cube. Adding the smallest possible dimension—one with only two members—to a cube doubles the number of cells in the cube. Anything you can do to avoid adding a new dimension will prevent the complexity of a cube from increasing.

Adding a second hierarchy to a dimension is equivalent to adding a new dimension to the cube. For example, even though Time.Fiscal and Time.Calendar are in the same dimension, and even though they share lowest-level members and ...