In MDX, properties describe certain characteristics of data and metadata. MDX enables you to write queries that use properties to retrieve and analyze data. Properties can be intrinsic or custom.
Intrinsic properties are defined for members in all dimensions. The intrinsic member properties defined for all members in an Essbase database outline are MEMBER_NAME, MEMBER_ALIAS, LEVEL_NUMBER, and GEN_NUMBER.
MDX in Essbase supports two types of custom properties: attribute properties and UDA properties. Attribute properties are defined by the attribute dimensions in an outline. In the Sample.Basic database, the Pkg Type attribute dimension describes the packaging characteristics of members in the Product dimension. This information can be queried in MDX using the property name [Pkg Type].
Attribute properties are defined only for specific dimensions and only for a specific level in each dimension. For example, in the Sample.Basic outline, [Ounces] is an attribute property defined only for members in the Product dimension, and this property has valid values only for the level 0 members of the Product dimension. The [Ounces] property does not exist for other dimensions, such as Market. The [Ounces] property for a non level 0 member in the Product dimension is a NULL value. The attribute properties in an outline are identified by the names of attribute dimensions in that outline.
The custom properties also include UDAs. For example, [Major Market] is a UDA property defined on Market dimension members. It returns a TRUE value if [Major Market] UDA is defined for a member, and FALSE otherwise.