Introduction

So far we've been through the basics of MDX calculations. We learned few tricks regarding time calculations, practiced making concise reports, navigated hierarchies, and analyzed data by applying typical business calculations. As we're approaching the end of the book, more and more of the special topics arrive.

This is a book that follows the cookbook approach, the main topic being the MDX. In this chapter, however, we're going to discover that MDX calculations are not always the place to look for a solution to a problem. It is only one of the possible layers we can start from. The other two layers are the cube design and the underlying data warehouse (DW) model. One thing depends on the other. A good data model will enable a good cube design which in turn will enable simple MDX calculations.

Whenever we are given a request to get something from the cube, it is not only a request to make an adequate MDX query or calculation and then to return the data, it is something much deeper...