Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® Analysis Services 2008 with MDX

6.5. Calculated Members

The term calculated member refers to the creation of any MDX object through a calculation. The calculated member can be part of the Measures dimension where a simple MDX expression such as addition or subtraction of two or more base measures results in a new measure. Such calculated members on the Measures dimension are referred to as calculated measures. You can also create calculated members on other dimensions by specifying an MDX expression. These members are simply referred to as calculated members. To create a calculated member, click the Calculations tab of the cube editor. This takes you to the Calculations view, as shown in Figure 6-22. The Calculations view contains three window panes: Script Organizer, Calculation Tools, and Script.

The Script Organizer window pane shows the names of the calculation objects of the cube. Various types of calculations can be created in the Calculations view such as calculated members and calculated measures. You can apply a name to a subset of dimension members. This is referred to as a named set. In addition to calculated members and named sets, you can define a script containing complex MDX expressions to perform complex business logic calculations. If you right-click within the Script Organizer you can see the selections to create a calculated member, named set, or a script command. These operations can also be performed by clicking the buttons in the toolbar as indicated in Figure 6-22. You create calculated ...