An axis is a specification determining the layout of query results from a database. Axes fit into MDX queries as follows:
SELECT <axis> [, <axis>...] FROM <database>
At least one axis must be specified in any MDX query.
Up to 64 axes may be specified, beginning with AXIS(0) and continuing with AXIS(1)...AXIS(63). Using more than three axes is uncommon. The order of axes is not important; however, when a set of axes 0 through n are specified, no axis between 0 and n should be skipped. Additionally, a dimension cannot appear on multiple axes.
The first five axes have keyword aliases, as listed in Table 110:
For example, in the following query, the axis specification is {Jan}ON COLUMNS:
SELECT {Jan} ON COLUMNS FROM Sample.Basic