Analysis Services Cube Editor

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Homer - 22 Oct 2004 19:19 GMT

How does one create outer joins in the cube editor. The documentation states
that by default only inner joins are created and to use Visual Database Tools
( a Visual Studio module). Any workarounds for this?

thanks in advance

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Dave Wickert [MSFT] - 23 Oct 2004 07:44 GMT

The most flexible way to do this is to create a view on the relational
database-side.
Analysis Services loads from a view as well as it can from a base table.
Remember however, that you should explicitly cast NULLs to specific values
from the outer join.
Analysis Services treats NULLs as 0's (in measures) and as unknown values
(as dimension keys).

In SQL Server 2005, we have expanded the semantics for handling NULLs, but
for now in SQL Server 2000, we strongly recommend that you specifically cast
NULLs to some pre-defined value prior to exposing the data to Analysis
Services. You will just be a lot happier if you do this.

Hope that helps.

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Dave Wickert [MSFT]
dwickert@online.microsoft.com
Program Manager
BI SystemsTeam
SQL BI Product Unit (Analysis Services)
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> How does one create outer joins in the cube editor. The documentation states
> that by default only inner joins are created and to use Visual Database Tools
> ( a Visual Studio module). Any workarounds for this?
>
> thanks in advance

Reply to this Message