Selecting How Member Names are Displayed

Aliases make reports easier to read and help the reader focus on the data values rather than the meanings of member names. You can display members in a report by their aliases. For example, you can display page, column, and row names, such as Diet Cola or Caffeine Free Cola, rather than the corresponding member names 100-20 and 100-30.

Qualified member names help identify specific members in duplicate member databases. You can display the qualified member name when duplicate member names are encountered; for example, [State].[New York] and [City].[New York] uniquely identify the member name New York. For information about duplicate member names, see Creating and Working With Duplicate Member Outlines.

Table 106 lists the commands for displaying member names:

Table 106. Report Writer Commands: Member Name Display

Report Command

Description

<REPALIAS

Display alias names for members of the specified dimension

<REPALIASMBR

Display alias names followed by member names

<REPMBRALIAS

Display member names followed by alias names

<REPMBR

Display member names only for members of the dimension specified

<REPQUALMBR

Display member names for unique member names and display qualified names for duplicate member names

<OUTPUTMEMBERKEY

Display member identifiers for duplicate member names, and member and alias names.

<REPALIAS, <REPALIASMBR, <REPMBRALIAS, <REPMBR, and <REPQUALMBR are format commands that can be applied to specific dimensions. They override one another. For example, when Report Writer encounters <REPALIASMBR Product, it displays the alias name in front of the member name. If <REPMBRALIAS Product is found later in the script, Report Writer then displays the member name in front of the alias name. For duplicate member outlines, the <OUTPUTMEMBERKEY command can be combined with any of the other commands in the table. The member identifier, and the member name, alias name, or both, are included in the report output.

Example Displaying a Member Name and Alias

You can display members in a report as a combination of the member name and its alias. Combining the member name and alias enables you to display more descriptive page, column, and row names, such as Diet Cola 100-20 or 100-30 Caffeine Free Cola.

  To display member names and aliases, use the <REPALIASMBR command or REPMBRALIAS command in a report script.

This example uses <REPALIASMBR to display the alias name ahead of the member name:

<PAGE (Product, Measures)
<COLUMN (Scenario, Year)
Actual
<ICHILDREN Qtr1
<ROW (Market)
<IDESCENDANTS "300"
<REPALIASMBR Product
    !

Resulting report:

                 Dark Cream 300-10 Measures Actual 
                      Jan      Feb      Mar     Qtr1 
                 ======== ======== ======== ======== 
Market                800      864      880    2,544 

                 Vanilla Cream 300-20 Measures Actual   
                      Jan      Feb      Mar     Qtr1 
                 ======== ======== ======== ======== 
Market                220      231      239      690 

                 Diet Cream 300-30 Measures Actual 
                      Jan      Feb      Mar     Qtr1 
                 ======== ======== ======== ======== 
Market                897      902      896    2,695 

                    Cream Soda 300 Measures Actual 
                      Jan      Feb      Mar     Qtr1 
                 ======== ======== ======== ======== 
Market              1,917    1,997    2,015    5,929