Cube Editor - Browse

The Cube editor enables you to examine and edit a cube’s structure. It appears in two views, Browse and Schema. You can switch from one view to another by clicking the Preview Cube Data or View Source Tables button or by clicking Data (Browse view) or Schema on the View menu.

The Cube editor appears when you do either of the following:

In the OLAP Manager tree view, right-click a cube, and then click Edit.
In the OLAP Manager tree view, click a cube, and then on the Action menu, click Edit.

The Browse pane in the Cube editor is identical to the Cube browser. (An exception is that you cannot view sample data in the Cube browser unless you display the Cube browser by clicking Browse Sample Data in the last step of the Cube wizard.) The Cube browser appears when in the OLAP Manager tree view you right-click a cube and then click Browse Data.

In this topic, you can read about:

The Browse pane.
The Cube editor menus.
The Cube editor toolbar.
The tree view.
The Properties pane.
Working in the Cube editor.

Browse Pane

The Browse pane organizes the cube data in the data grid. The default view for the data grid shows the data in table format with one dimension across the column headings and another dimension down the left column. (Measures are treated as a single dimension for this purpose.) The remaining dimensions of the cube are displayed in the slicer pane.

In this example, the data in the grid cells represents the measures according to the members that appear in the levels boxes for all the dimensions shown in the slicer pane. The specific members of the Customer Location dimension are spelled out across the grid column headings. Thus, the Unit Sales for all products, all promotion media, all promotions, all stores, and all store types in 1997 appears in the cells at the intersections of the Unit Sales row and the various columns displaying Customer Location dimension members (All Customers, Canada, Mexico, and so on).

The data in the Browse pane is either internally-generated sample data or the actual data from the cube.

Sample data appears when the cube has been changed since it was last processed, including changes made during your current editing session.

You can browse the sample data to check the design of your cube as you are building or editing it. You can see how the data is organized according to the current structure of the cube.

Actual data appears when the cube structure has not been changed since it was last processed.

To browse the actual data, you can drill down or slice through your data.

Working in the Browse Pane

To browse the cube data in the data grid by any combination of dimensions, drag measures or dimensions from the slicer pane onto either axis on the data grid.

To replace a dimension on the data grid with another dimension

Drag the dimension from the slicer pane to the dimension in the data grid that you want to replace.

The pointer is in the correct position when it appears like this:

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The existing dimension moves up to the slicer pane and the new one takes its place.

To move a dimension to the data grid

Drag the dimension from the slicer pane to a cell below (or beside) the existing dimension.

The pointer is in the correct position when it appears like this:

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The new dimension appears under (or beside) the existing dimension, expanding your data grid.

To change the order of dimensions on the data grid

Drag the dimension and drop it on the dimension where you want it to be located.

To remove a dimension from the data grid

Drag the dimension you want to remove from the data grid to the slicer pane.

To drill down into a member

Double-click a dimension member on the data grid. If the member has a level beneath it, this next level is expanded.

Only the member you double-click is expanded. The other members retain their current levels in the data grid.

To slice through a dimension

To change the member in a dimension in the slicer pane, click the down arrow on the levels box, expand the levels, and then select a new member. The cube data in the data grid changes to reflect the change in the dimension member.

The Browse pane has an internal memory limit which you may reach if you attempt to browse too much data or drill down too deeply. When you reach the limit, the following message is displayed:

Unable to display current view of cube.
Unable to Allocate Memory For Flexgrid.

The limit cannot be increased by adding or allocating more memory. If you reach the limit, reduce the amount or depth of data you are attempting to browse or use another browser.

Cube Editor Menus

Menu	Option	Description
File	New Cube - Wizard	Creates a new cube using the Cube wizard.
	New Cube - Editor	Creates a new cube using the Cube editor.
	Save	Saves the cube.
	Save As	Saves the cube under a different name.
	Exit	Closes the Cube editor.
Edit	Rename	Renames the selected object.
	Delete	Deletes the selected object.
	Remove Join	Removes all joins from selected column (Schema pane only).
View	Schema	Displays the Schema pane.
	Data	Displays the Browse pane.
	Properties	Expands the Properties pane.
Insert	Tables	Adds a table to the cube.
	Dimension - Manager	Adds a dimension using the Dimension Manager.
	Dimension - New Private	Adds a new private dimension.
	Level	Adds a new level.
	Measure	Adds a new measure.
	Calculated Member	Adds a calculated member using the calculated member builder.
	Join	Adds a join to selected column (Schema pane only).
Tools	Process Cube	Processes the cube.
	Design Storage	Designs aggregations and storage using the Storage Design wizard.
	Count Dimension Members	Counts the number of members in a dimension.
	Validate Cube Structure	Verifies that the cube structure doesn’t contain invalid components that would prevent processing of the cube.
	Optimize Schema	Simplifies a cube’s schema for maximum performance by removing unnecessary joins and other inefficient processes.
	Manage Roles	Manages roles and users.
Help	Help on Cube Editor	Brings up this Help topic.
	Contents and Index	Opens Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services product documentation.

Toolbar

Tree View

The tree view previews the structure of the cube in a hierarchical tree. Right-click an object to see a shortcut menu for that object.

Right-click	Shortcut menu option	Description
Cube name	New Cube	Adds a new cube.
	Process Cube	Processes the cube.
	Dimension Manager	Opens the Dimension Manager.
	New Private Dimension	Adds a new private dimension.
	New Measure	Adds a new measure.
Dimensions folder	Dimension Manager	Opens the Dimension Manager.
	New Private Dimension	Adds a new private dimension.
Dimension	Dimension Manager	Opens the Dimension Manager.
	New Private Dimension	Adds a new private dimension.
	Remove	Removes the dimension.
Level	Dimension Manager	Opens the Dimension Manager.
	New Private Dimension	Adds a new private dimension.
Measures folder	New Measure	Adds a new measure.
Measure	New Measure	Adds a new measure.
	Delete	Deletes the measure.
	Rename	Renames the measure.
Calculated members folder	New Calculated Member	Adds a new calculated member.
Calculated member	New Calculated Member	Adds a new calculated member.
	Edit	Edits the calculated member.
	Delete	Deletes the calculated member.
	Rename	Renames the calculated member.

Properties Pane

The Properties pane displays the properties of a selected object in the tree view. Each type of object (cube, dimension, levels, and measures) contains a different set of properties. Use the Properties pane to modify the property settings for any selected object.

To expand the Properties pane for an object in the tree view

Click the object, and then click the arrow on the Properties pane,
-Or-
On the View menu, click Properties.

Note The MemberKeyColumn property for a dimension level can refer to a column or to a value derived from a column, such as a formula that extracts the year value from a date-formatted column. However, the column or the value derived from the column must be a string or a number.

For more information about properties, see Properties Cross-Reference.

Working in the Cube Editor

The following functions can be performed in different ways. Choose the option that is easiest for you.

To select a different cube

In the Cube box, select the cube you want to edit.

To create a new cube using the cube wizard

On the File menu, point to New Cube, and then click Wizard.
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Click the New Cube button on the toolbar.

To create a new cube using the Cube editor

On the File menu, point to New Cube, and then click Editor.
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In the Cube list, select <New>.
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Right-click a cube in the tree view, and then click New Cube.

To save the current cube

On the File menu, click Save.
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Click the Save button on the toolbar.

To save the current cube under a different name

On the File menu, click Save As.
Enter a name in the Cube Name box, and then click OK.

To add a table

On the Insert menu, click Tables.
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Click the Insert Table button on the toolbar.

To access the Dimension manager

On the Insert menu, point to Dimension, and then click Manager.
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Click the Insert Dimension button on the toolbar.
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In the tree view, right-click either 1) a cube name, 2) the Dimensions folder, or 3) a dimension name, and then click Dimension Manager.

To add a new private dimension

On the Insert menu, point to Dimension, and then click New Private.
In the tree view, right-click either 1) a cube name, 2) the Dimensions folder, or 3) a dimension name, and then click New Private Dimension.

To remove a dimension

In the tree view, right-click the dimension, and then click Remove.

To add a measure

On the Insert menu, click Measure.
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Click the Insert Measure button on the toolbar.
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In the tree view, right-click either 1) the Measures folder or 2) a measure name, and then click New Measure.

To delete a measure

In the tree view, right-click the measure, and then click Delete.

To rename a measure

In the tree view, right-click the measure, and then click Rename.
Type the new name over the old name, and then press ENTER.

To add a calculated member

On the Insert menu, click Calculated Member.
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Click the Insert Calculated Member button on the toolbar.
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In the tree view, right-click either 1) the Calculated Members folder or 2) a calculated member name, and then click New Calculated Member.

To edit a calculated member

In the tree view, right-click the calculated member, and then click Edit.

To delete a calculated member

In the tree view, right-click the calculated member, and then click Delete.

To process the cube

On the Tools menu, click Process Cube.

To design aggregations and storage

On the Tools menu, click Design Storage.

To count dimension members

On the Tools menu, click Count Dimension Members.

To validate the cube structure

On the Tools menu, click Validate Cube Structure.

To optimize the cube schema

On the Tools menu, click Optimize Schema.

To manage roles

On the Tools menu, click Manage Roles.
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Click the Manage Roles button on the toolbar.

To view the Schema pane

On the View menu, click Schema.
-Or-
Click the View Source Tables button on the lower toolbar.

To expand the Properties pane

On the View menu, click Properties.
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Click the arrow on the Properties pane below the tree view.

To edit the properties of an object

In the Properties pane, place the pointer in the desired cell and type in the new value, or select a value from the list, if a list is presented.

To close the Cube editor

On the File menu, click Exit.