When you calculate a sparse dimension, Essbase may not need to calculate every data block in the database.
For example, the following calculation script is based on the Sample.Basic database:
SET CLEARUPDATESTATUS AFTER; CALC DIM(Product);
This script calculates the Product dimension, which is a sparse dimension. Because Product is sparse, a data block exists for each member on the Product dimension. For example, one data block exists for New York -> Colas and another for New York -> 100-10.