Understanding Attribute Dimensions

Products have attributes that are characteristics of the products, such as a product's size and packaging. Attribute members reside in attribute dimensions. An attribute dimension has the word Attribute next to its name in the outline.

Figure 41, Outline Showing Base and Attribute Dimensions shows part of the Sample.Basic outline featuring the Product dimension and three attribute dimensions: Caffeinated, Ounces, and Pkg Type. To the right of the Product dimension, the terms Caffeinated, Ounces, and Pkg Type show that these attribute dimensions are associated with the Product dimension.

Figure 41. Outline Showing Base and Attribute Dimensions

This image shows an outline with a base dimension (Products) and attribute dimensions (Caffeinated, Ounces, and Pkg Type), as described in the text preceding and following the image.

A standard dimension is any dimension that is not an attribute dimension. When an attribute dimension is associated with a standard dimension, the standard dimension is the base dimension for that attribute dimension. In Figure 41, Outline Showing Base and Attribute Dimensions, the Product dimension is the base dimension for the Caffeinated, Ounces, and Pkg Type attribute dimensions.

Note:

Attribute dimensions and members are Dynamic Calc, so Essbase calculates attribute information at retrieval time. Attribute data is not stored in the database.