Associating Base Dimension Members with Their Range Attributes

After you build the numeric attribute dimension ranges, you need a rules file to associate the members of the base dimension with their attributes. The source data includes fields for the members of the base dimension and fields for the data values that Essbase uses to associate the appropriate Population attribute.

Define the rules file as shown in Figure 88, Rules File for Associating Numeric Range Attributes.

Figure 88. Rules File for Associating Numeric Range Attributes

This image illustrates a rules file for associating base dimension members with numeric range attributes, as described in the text preceding the image.

When you define the association field (for example, Population3, Market), place the attribute members within a range. In Data Prep Editor, on the Dimension Build Properties tab of the Field Properties dialog box, select “Place attribute members within a numeric range.”

Note:

Figure 88, Rules File for Associating Numeric Range Attributes includes a city, Boston, whose population of 3,227,707 is outside the ranges of the attribute dimension in Figure 86, Numeric Attribute Dimension with Different-Sized Ranges, where the ranges extend only to 3,000,000. To allow for values in the source data that are outside the ranges in the attribute dimension, enter a range size, such as 1000000. Essbase uses the range size to add members to the attribute dimension above the existing highest member or below the existing lowest member, as needed.

Caution!

After you associate members of the base dimension with members of the attribute dimension, if you manually insert new members into the attribute dimension or rename members of the attribute dimension, you may invalidate existing attribute associations. Consider an example where numeric range attributes are defined as “Tops of ranges” and an attribute dimension contains members 100, 200, 500, and 1000. A base dimension member with the value 556 is associated with the attribute 1000. If you rename a attribute dimension member from 500 to 600, the base dimension member with the value 556 now has an invalid association. This base member is still associated with the attribute 1000 when it should be associated with the attribute 600. If you manually insert new members or rename existing members, to ensure that associations are correct, rerun the dimension build procedure and associate the base members with the changed attribute dimensions. For example, rerunning the attribute association procedure correctly associates the member of the base dimension with the value 556 with the new attribute 600.