Setting essential attribute properties
While running the Dimension Wizard to create the Promotion dimension, you learned that each attribute has name and key properties. Choosing appropriate columns for these properties is essential for having the correct attribute design, so we will discuss them in greater detail here.
How to do it...
The steps for setting essential attribute properties are as follows:
The key property must uniquely identify the attribute and could consist of multiple columns. For example, if we have a date dimension that includes the quarter number column, with values quarter 1, quarter 2, and so on, this column alone won't be sufficient to uniquely identify each quarter because quarter names would be duplicated for each year. Instead, the key property should be set to a combination of quarter and year columns. If we don't explicitly specify the attribute key, Analysis Services will use the same column as the attribute key and name, but attribute names might not always be...
