Working with Dimension Status

The current status list of a dimension is an ordered list of currently accessible values for the dimension. Values that are in the current status list of a dimension are said to be "in status." The current status list of a dimension determines the selection of the data from all of the objects that are dimensioned by it.

For dimensions, only those dimension values that are in the current status list are accessed. For dimensioned objects, only those data values that are indexed by dimension values in the current status list are accessed. As a loop is performed through a dimensioned object, the order of the dimension values in the current status list is used to determine the order in which the values of the object are accessed.

Important:

Whether or not a dimension value is in status merely restricts your view of the value during a given session; it does not permanently affect the values that are stored in the analytic workspace.

A dimension and any surrogate for that dimension share the same status. Setting the status of a dimension surrogate sets the status of its dimension and setting the status of a dimension sets the status of any dimension surrogates for it. In Alphabetic Reference, references to dimensions apply equally to dimension surrogates, except where noted. Also the phrase "setting status" includes assigning values to a valueset as well as setting the current status of a dimension. Composites are not dimensions, and therefore they do not have any independent status. The values of a composite that are "in status" are determined by the status of the base dimensions of the composite. In general, when statements deal with objects defined with composites, the default behavior is to treat those objects as if no SPARSE keyword or named composite had been used when the object was defined.

When you first attach an analytic workspace, the current status list of each dimension consists of all of the values of the dimension that have read permission, in the order in which the values are stored. This list of values is called the default status list for the dimension.