Parts of an MDX Query

To specify a dataset, the MDX query must contain information about the following subjects:

• The cube that sets the scope of the query
• The number of axes
• The dimensions projected on each axis and nesting level of each of these dimensions
• The members or member tuples from each dimension to include, and the sort order
• The members from a nonprojected dimension on which data will be filtered for members from projected dimensions

A typical, basic MDX query takes the following form:

SELECT <axis_specification> [, <axis_specification>...]

FROM <cube_specification>

WHERE <slicer_specification>

The following topics describe each part of this query syntax.

Note The full syntax of MDX queries contains significantly more features than the preceding syntax, which contains only the basic elements.