OLAP module of BI2M helps you to examine your data through different dimensions depending on your particular questions, as the changing of the dimensions is easy and fast. Besides you can go deeper into your analysis, as you penetrate into the dimension hierarchy. The Drill Down operation can help you for this. You can concretize your question and receive information for an exact element of the dimension. We will demonstrate it using the model cube Sales.
Changing the dimension:
Start BI2M and choose new OLAP project. Choose the desired OLAP cube by the dialog for multidimensional database connection. In this case we use the cube Sales from the database Foodmart2000. The query by default, which is formed at the beginning of a work with every cube, contains a level Time, if the cube possesses such a level. In the current case:
Now you can quickly change the query by dragging a dimension in interest to the table or to the chart at your choice. For the given model database you can be interested, for example, in profit totals according to the store location for each product category. To this end you have to do the following:
Drag by the mouse the dimension Store from the cube tree to the table (or the chart. Icons, indicating the chosen elements by rows and by columns in the current query, appear. In the beginning it is chosen only Time by rows. Drop Store on Time. The new dimension replaces the previous one. After that take the dimension Product and drop it on the icon indicating columns. Te following appears:
You can choose elements for the query using the context menu of the cube tree instead of drag-and-drop by the mouse. Select the desired element, press the right button. The following context menu appears:
You can choose the dimension to be included by rows, columns or as a filter.
Drilling down into members:
After you include the desired dimensions, you will probably want to examine the data at a lower level. In our example you can be interested in details of the USA store profit numbers. Therefore you have to drill down the hierarchy. This can be done in three easy ways:
- In the cube tree – right-click on USA and choose Drill Down from the context menu:
- In the table – select USA, right-click and choose Drill Down of Store=USA from the context menu
- In the chart - select an element of the chart, referred to USA and choose the following from the context menu:
The result is:
Further if you repeat these actions to view the separate drink categories, you will get this:
Slicing through cube dimensions
To slice through the cube dimensions means to filter the data, i.e. you can choose a part of the cube, as you include concrete elements of interest, without choosing all the level. This can be done by mouse click on the element’s name in the cube tree.
For example, you can choose a part, containing California and Alcoholic Drinks:
