If you've followed my blog at least somewhat, you've probably read a blog post or two where I cover one or several of the really cool features of BI xPress . That's because, simply put, BI xPress is a very versatile and useful tool that no SSIS developer should be without. It pains me to think about all the time I have to waste whenever I go work for a client that does not have BI xPress. With that said, one of the smaller but more useful features of BI xPress that I found myself making use of i...
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One of the most powerful aspects of Analysis Services is the ability to easily view your facts over time. What's not always so easy is writing those calculations that make complex time analysis possible. MDX can have a steep learning curve, which is where the BI xPress MDX Calculation Builder by Pragmatic Works steps in. After installing BI xPress, you will very quickly and easily add calculations to your cube without having to write a lick of MDX. To access the MDX Calculation Builder, open BID...
Next month on November 5th is SQL Saturday #86 in Tampa, Florida . But this is no ordinary SQL Saturday. This is SQL Saturday: BI Edition! Which means this SQL Saturday is going to be even more amazing, hard core, and in your face than usual! If you've never been to a SQL Saturday event, let me just say that you are missing out. And if you have been to one before, then you know exactly how awesome these events are. Whether you show up for the incredible FREE training from qualified industry pro'...
The Visual Basic for Applications library functions are a great way to extend the functionality of your MDX statements, allowing you to do some very handy stuff. Irina Gorbach has created a nice little document outlining the VBA functions available , so definitely check that out. There's an important performance difference between the VBA functions and native MDX functions, which Irina points out. One of the VBA functions I've been asked about by a couple people is the IsNumeric function. The Is...
I recently encountered a requirement for a client to display a list of all the individual stores of a ragged hierarchy (the leaf members) on an SSRS report with a bunch of different measures. But they also wanted to be able to quickly see the the ancestor members of each level above each store quickly by using a tool tip to display the different ancestors. Turns out there are a couple nifty, little MDX functions that can allow us to do this very easily. The Ancestors and Generate functions make ...