Dynamic Calculations

When you design the overall database calculation, you may want to define a member as a Dynamic Calc member. When you tag a member as Dynamic Calc, Essbase calculates the combinations of that member when you retrieve the data, instead of precalculating the member combinations during the regular database calculation. Dynamic calculations shorten regular database calculation time but may increase retrieval time for dynamically calculated data values.

In Figure 35, TBC Measures Dimension, Dynamic Calc Tags, the TBC Measures dimension contains several members tagged as Dynamic Calc—Profit, Margin, Total Expenses, Margin %, and Profit %.

Figure 35. TBC Measures Dimension, Dynamic Calc Tags

This image shows the members in the TBC Measures dimension that are tagged as Dynamic Calc, as described in the text preceding the image.

When an overall database calculation is performed, the Dynamic Calc members and their corresponding formulas are not calculated. These members are calculated when a user requests them, for example, from Spreadsheet Add-in. Essbase does not store the calculated values; it recalculates the values for any subsequent retrieval. However, you can choose to store dynamically calculated values after the first retrieval.

To decide when to calculate data values dynamically, consider your priorities in the following areas:

See Dynamically Calculating Data Values.