FIX: BUG: "Invalid Pointer" Error When Creating Calculated Member in a Local Cube

ID: Q241356

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for OLAP Services, version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

You receive the following error when attempting to create a local cube with a calculated member by using the COMMAND clause:

Error# -2147467261 Invalid Pointer.

CAUSE

The current version of OLAP Services doesn't support this functionality for a local cube.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:


   Date          Size    File name     Platform
   --------------------------------------------
   10/12/99      40 MB  S700706I.EXE    Intel

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The product documentation for OLAP Services incorrectly states that you can create calculated members that persist with the local cube. Following is the incorrect documentation:

A calculated member can be persisted in a local cube if a CREATE MEMBER statement is specified in the COMMAND clause of the CREATE CUBE statement.
CREATE CUBE MYWAREHOUSE 
(
DIMENSION . . .
. . . ,
COMMAND [CREATE MEMBER [MYWAREHOUSE].[MEASURES].[WAREHOUSEPROFIT]
        AS '[MEASURES].[WAREHOUSE SALES] - [MEASURES].[WAREHOUSE COST]']
) 

The COMMAND clause in the above code is not supported for a local cube, and causes the error shown in the "Summary" section if it is included in the CREATE CUBE statement.

Steps to Reproduce the Error

A group of samples ship on the SQL 7.0 CD in the MSolap/Samples directory. Run the compressed file called Samples.exe to extract the samples. In that group of samples there is a Visual Basic project named VBADOCREATECUBE that shows how to create a local cube through ADO.

To reproduce the error, modify the following lines in the Visual Basic VBADOCREATECUBE sample:


 strCreateCube = strCreateCube & "Format '#.#')"
'strCreateCube = strCreateCube & ","
'strCreateCube = strCreateCube & " COMMAND [CREATE MEMBER [MEASURE].[Warehouse Profit] "
'strCreateCube = strCreateCube & "AS '[MEASURE].[Warehouse Sales] - [MEASURE].[Warehouse Cost]'])"

Remove the closed parenthesis [)] from the first line and uncomment the next three lines so that the code resembles the following:


strCreateCube = strCreateCube & "Format '#.#'"
strCreateCube = strCreateCube & ","
strCreateCube = strCreateCube & " COMMAND [CREATE MEMBER [MEASURE].[Warehouse Profit] "
strCreateCube = strCreateCube & "AS '[MEASURE].[Warehouse Sales] - [MEASURE].[Warehouse Cost]'])"

REFERENCES

SQL Server OLAP Services Books Online

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbDatabase kbGrpVCDB kbOLAP700
Version : WINDOWS:7.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug