In most cases, to calculate a sparse dimension member dynamically, tag the member as Dynamic Calc instead of Dynamic Calc and Store. When Essbase calculates data values for a member combination that includes a Dynamic Calc member, Essbase calculates only the requested values of the relevant data block. These values can be a subset of the data block.
However, when Essbase calculates data values for a member combination that includes a Dynamic Calc and Store member, Essbase must calculate and store the whole data block, even if the requested data values are a subset of the data block. Thus, the calculation takes longer and the initial retrieval time is greater.
Essbase stores only the data blocks that contain the requested data values. If Essbase must calculate intermediate data blocks to calculate the requested data blocks, it does not store the intermediate blocks.
Calculating the intermediate data blocks can significantly increase the initial retrieval time. For example, in the Sample.Basic database, Market and Product are the sparse dimensions. Assume that Market and the children of Market are Dynamic Calc and Store members. When a user retrieves the data value for the member combination Market -> Cola -> Jan -> Actual -> Sales, Essbase calculates and stores the Market -> Cola data block. To calculate and store Market -> Cola, Essbase calculates the intermediate data blocks—East -> Cola, West -> Cola, South -> Cola, and Central -> Cola. Essbase does not store these intermediate data blocks.