Names

Names in MaxL are used to uniquely identify databases and database artifacts, such as users, applications, or filters.

Rules for Names

Unless you enclose a MaxL name within single quotation marks, a MaxL name is a string that must begin with an alphabetic character or the underscore. Names that are not enclosed in quotation marks may contain only alphabetic characters, numbers, and the underscore.

When enclosed in single quotation marks, a name may contain white space and any of the following special characters:

.
,
;
:
% 
$
"
'
*
+
-
=
<
>
[
]
{
}
(
)
?
!
 /
 \
|
 ~
`
#
&
@
^

Note:

Any name that is also a MaxL keyword must be enclosed in single quotation marks. For a list of keywords, see the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference.

Examples:

The following application names do not require single quotation marks:

Orange
Orange22
_Orange

The following application names do require single quotation marks:

Orange County(because the name contains a space)
22Orange (because the name begins with a number)
variable (because the name is a MaxL keyword)

Types of Names

Some Essbase artifacts have single names, and some require compound names known as doubles and triples, which express the nesting of namespaces.

A singleton name can be meaningful in a system-wide context—the artifact to which it refers may be global to Essbase—or it needs no specified application or database context. For example, an application has a singleton name because it need not be considered in the context of another application or database.

A double is two names connected by a period, and a triple is three names connected by two periods. Doubles and triples show the inherited namespace of the named entity. For example, a database usually is identified using two names. The first identifies the application in which the database resides, and the second is the database name; for example:

Sample.Basic

Database artifacts, such as filters, usually are identified using triple names: the first two names identify the application and database, and the third is the artifact name. Therefore, a filter name could look like this:

sample.basic.filter3

Table 162 shows the type of name required for the most common artifacts and provides an example of the name used in a statement.

Table 162. Name Requirements for Artifacts

Artifact

Name

Example

User

singleton

create user Fiona identified by 'password';

Group

singleton

alter user Fiona add to group Managers;

Host

singleton

drop replicated partition Samppart.Company from Sampeast.East at EastHost;

Application

singleton

create application '&New App';

Database

double

display database '&New App'.testdb;

Calculation

triple

drop calculation Sample.basic.'alloc.csc';

Filter

triple

display filter row sample.basic.filter1;

Function (local)

double

drop function sample.'@COVARIANCE';

Function (global)

singleton

create function '@JSUM' as 'CalcFnc.sum'; 

Location alias

triple

drop location alias Main.Sales.EasternDB;

Role

singleton

grant designer on database Sample.basic to Fiona;

Substitution variable

singleton

alter system add variable Current_month; 
alter system set variable Current_month July;

Disk volume

singleton to define, triple to display

alter database AP.main1 add disk volume G;
alter database AP.main1 set disk volume G partition_size 200mb;
display disk volume sample.basic.C;