MDAC 2.5 SDK - OLE DB Programmer's Reference
Chapter 21: OLE DB for OLAP Concepts
To browse members, use IDBSchemaRowset::GetRowset to ask for the MEMBERS rowset. This rowset straddles the line between data and metadata. Because a dimension can have many members, this rowset is too big to be considered metadata. On the other hand, the list of members is reasonably static, which is a characteristic usually associated with metadata.
Note Due to the potentially large number of members in a dimension, materializing a MEMBERS rowset without any restrictions (or restricted only up to the dimension name) might take a while to be returned. Therefore, consumers should be judicious in asking for a MEMBERS rowset without any restrictions.
Another distinctive characteristic of the MEMBERS rowset is that its structure varies depending on the parent level. This schema rowset contains the list of member names as well as property values for each member, with each property occupying a column. Because the list of properties varies based on the level that the member belongs to, the structure of the rowset also varies. All of this assumes that the provider supports named levels. For more information, see Named and Unnamed Levels.
Using restrictions, the consumer can query for the children, parent, ancestors, descendants, and siblings of a given member. For a complete description of restrictions on the MEMBERS rowset, see MEMBERS Rowset.