Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services implements multidimensional expressions (MDX) for manipulating multidimensional data. MDX is defined in the OLAP extensions in OLE DB.
MDX provides a rich and powerful syntax for querying and manipulating the multidimensional data stored in OLAP server cubes. OLAP Services supports MDX functions in the definitions of calculated members, and in a full language implementation for building local cubes and querying cube data using PivotTable® Service with OLE DB and Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO).
You can also create and register your own functions that operate on multidimensional data as well as accept arguments and return values in the MDX syntax.
OLAP Services provides over 100 built-in MDX functions for defining sophisticated calculated members in the Cube editor’s Calculated Member Builder. These functions are divided into the following categories:
For more information, see Creating Calculated Members and Calculated Member Builder.
You can create a local cube to be stored on a computer other than the computer running the OLAP server. Creation of a local cube requires MDX syntax.
Creation of local cubes is accomplished through PivotTable Service, which is an OLE DB client to an OLAP server. PivotTable Service also provides stand-alone OLE DB provider capabilities for local cube creation when not connected to an OLAP server.
Use the CREATE CUBE and INSERT INTO statements to create a local cube. For more information, see Creating Local Cubes and CREATE CUBE.
In OLAP Services, all querying of cube data is performed through PivotTable Service. PivotTable Service also provides stand-alone OLE DB provider capabilities for querying when not connected to an OLAP server.
PivotTable Service implements MDX for manipulating multidimensional data and objects.
For more information about PivotTable Service, see PivotTable Service. For more information about querying with MDX, see Building an MDX Query.
OLE DB 2.0 and later documentation
ADO 2.0 and later documentation
You can create and register your own functions that operate on multidimensional data as well as accept arguments and return values in the MDX syntax. You can create functions using Component Object Model (COM) automation languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic® or Microsoft Visual C++®.
You can call user-defined functions from within the Calculated Member Builder, data definition language (DDL) statements that support MDX, and MDX queries.
For more information, see User-defined Functions with MDX Syntax.