Aliases make reports easier to read and help the reader focus on the data values rather than the meanings of member names. You can display members in a report by their aliases. For example, you can display page, column, and row names, such as Diet Cola or Caffeine Free Cola, rather than the corresponding member names 100-20 and 100-30.
Qualified member names help identify specific members in duplicate member databases. You can display the qualified member name when duplicate member names are encountered; for example, [State].[New York] and [City].[New York] uniquely identify the member name New York. For information about duplicate member names, see Creating and Working With Duplicate Member Outlines.
Table 106 lists the commands for displaying member names:
Table 106. Report Writer Commands: Member Name Display
<REPALIAS, <REPALIASMBR, <REPMBRALIAS, <REPMBR, and <REPQUALMBR are format commands that can be applied to specific dimensions. They override one another. For example, when Report Writer encounters <REPALIASMBR Product, it displays the alias name in front of the member name. If <REPMBRALIAS Product is found later in the script, Report Writer then displays the member name in front of the alias name. For duplicate member outlines, the <OUTPUTMEMBERKEY command can be combined with any of the other commands in the table. The member identifier, and the member name, alias name, or both, are included in the report output.
Example Displaying a Member Name and Alias
You can display members in a report as a combination of the member name and its alias. Combining the member name and alias enables you to display more descriptive page, column, and row names, such as Diet Cola 100-20 or 100-30 Caffeine Free Cola.
To display member names and aliases, use the <REPALIASMBR command or REPMBRALIAS command in a report script.
This example uses <REPALIASMBR to display the alias name ahead of the member name:
Dark Cream 300-10 Measures Actual Jan Feb Mar Qtr1 ======== ======== ======== ======== Market 800 864 880 2,544 Vanilla Cream 300-20 Measures Actual Jan Feb Mar Qtr1 ======== ======== ======== ======== Market 220 231 239 690 Diet Cream 300-30 Measures Actual Jan Feb Mar Qtr1 ======== ======== ======== ======== Market 897 902 896 2,695 Cream Soda 300 Measures Actual Jan Feb Mar Qtr1 ======== ======== ======== ======== Market 1,917 1,997 2,015 5,929