Tricky Time Dimension Problem (Need expert's opinion)

[SQLUser]

Hi!<br><br>I haven't been able to figure out an effective method for designing the time dimension for my cube (Microsoft OLAP).<br><br>I have two DateTime columns in my fact table OriginDate and DropOutDate, that need to be represented as dimensions.<br><br>Can I create a single shared(?) dimension (Year, Quarter, Month, Day hierarchy) and represent both the DateABC and DateXYZ columns as dimensions?<br><br>I tried doing it, and was also able to process the cube. Everything &quot;looked&quot; fine, but I could not make both the dimensions visible.<br><br>HAAAAALP!<br><br>~~~ Stressed Out ~~~<br>

 

[Welshbird]

I had a similar problem and discovered that the problem was earlier in the process than I thought - It was actually in the foreign key restraints in the SQL model, and the only way I did solve it was to have two tables. I populated both of the same flat text file via a DTS package which speeded it up a litte. If you get another more helpful answer I'd like to hear it too!<br><br>Good luck,<br>Fiona

 

[rhoesche]

The time dimension in OLAP is used to identify one element of of the data. If you have two time fields it is easiest to to pick one as the identifier of time. I would probably pick orgin as the value. The second field should be a regular dimension. However, if you wish to see months, years etc. you can create additional dummy columns then use the Month() Year() function on the members to give you a time like dimension. This dimension will not have the same functionality as the actual time dimension.