Advanced design with CUBE functions

This section covers the CUBE functions available in Excel. This functionality allows you to operate on data from Analysis Services without using PivotTables or PivotCharts. These techniques are advanced and require basic Multidimensional Expression (MDX) skills. However, we will walk you through the simplest way to learn and use these functions initially.

We will use these functions to create the following three single-value visualizations on our dashboard:

• Total black items sold in the selected period
• Total blue items sold in the selected period
• Black and blue items sales amount in the selected period

In the next sections, we will walk through the steps to add these measures and apply the timeline filter to them.

Adding PivotTables to a new sheet

Let's begin by adding PivotTables:

1. In our multidimensional workbook, add a new sheet.
2. Add another PivotTable to this sheet (Data | Existing Connections ...