Calculation Options

The Calculation Options dialog box can be opened:

This dialog box is used to determine parameters for calculation on DB server.

On selecting the Calculation Period checkbox the user needs to indicate start and end of calculation period. The last entered period is offered by default. The Each Month Separately checkbox can also be selected, which enables the user to calculate for each month to reduce calculation time. For example, selecting the period 01.01.2007-01.06.2007 does not generate one procedure for the entire period, but a number of procedures with the periods 01.01.2007-31.01.2007, 01.02.2007-28.02.2007, and so on.

Use the Calculate box to determine a set of elements to calculate:

NOTE. If the dialog box has been opened from the object navigator, this box becomes unavailable, and the calculation is executed for all cube coordinates (the All Elements option).

The Before and During Calculation box is used to determine calculation method:

NOTE. If there are multiple facts in a cube, the values of the coordinate to be calculated are cleared for all facts even if the calculation formula is defined not for all the facts.

NOTE. If the cube contains multiple facts, the values of calculated coordinate are updated for all facts even if the calculation formula is defined for some of the facts.

Selecting the Consider Dependencies Between Formulas checkbox enables the use of formula dependencies in calculations using the recursion method. Before the calculation of the coordinate value, first, all the coordinate values used in its expression and having formulas defined are calculated. If the checkbox is deselected, formula dependencies are not used: the system uses the available coordinate values to calculate expressions.

NOTE. Dependencies between formulas in multidimensional calculations will work only when a source cube and destination cube coincide. If the source and destination differ, formula dependency will not work.

Calculation Example

A multidimensional calculation uses the same cube as the source one and the destination one. This cube consists of a recursive dimension and contains two facts. The following formulas are specified for the cube coordinates in the multidimensional calculation formula editor:

Destination cube coordinate Specified formula
b1(Fact1) b3(Fact1)
b1(Fact2) b3(Fact1)
b2(Fact1) b4(Fact1)

Before calculation the cube contained the following data:

The values, which are to be calculated, are underlined in red. The following results were obtained using this method:

Calculated values are underlined in green. Even though the value of the b2 element for the Fact1 has not changed after calculation, the value for this coordinate for the Fact2 has been erased, because this fact has no formula defined for it.

Compare two calculation methods:

A multidimensional calculation uses the same cube as the source one and the destination one. This cube consists of a recursive dimension and contains two facts. The formula editor for multiple calculation uses the b2(Fact1) formula for the b1(Fact1) (highlighted in green) cube coordinate. Before calculation the cube contained the following data:

Below is the data that was obtained on calculation by the Update Changed Elements with Non-Empty Values (left) and Update Changed Elements with Non-Empty Values by Indicators (right) methods:

The result of the applied formula is the same for both cases (underlined in red): the b1(Fact1) value is equal to the b2(Fact1) value. On using the Update Calculated Elements Using Non-Empty Values method (left), the b1 coordinate value by Fact2 is empty, because the formula by this coordinate fact was set; on using the Update Calculated Elements Using Non-Empty Values by Indicators method (right), the value is changed only by the coordinate facts, for which the formula was set.

Example:

A multidimensional calculation uses the same cube as the source one and the destination one. This cube consists of a recursive dimension and contains 1 fact. The following formulas are specified for the cube coordinates in the multidimensional calculation formula editor:

Destination cube coordinate Specified formula
b1 b2 + b3 + b4
b2 b3 +10
b3 b4 +10

All expressions are defined according to the existing cube fact. Before calculation the cube contained the following data:

This data was calculated using the Update Changed Elements method with the selected and deselected Consider Dependencies Between Formulas checkbox (on the left and on the right, respectively):

When the checkbox is selected (the result is shown on the left), before calculating the b1 coordinate value first the values of the b2 coordinate and the b3 coordinate are calculated, because they have formulas defined. To get the value of the b2 coordinate, the value of the b3 coordinate should be calculated, and so on. After all the values of the formula coordinates have been calculated, the value of the b1 coordinate is calculated.

When the checkbox is deselected (the result is shown on the right), to calculate the b1 coordinate, the system uses the available values of the coordinates b2, b3 and b4: 6, 5 and 10, respectively. To calculate the b2 coordinate, the system uses the available value of the b3 coordinate (5), and so on.

NOTE. When the Shift function is used in formulas, remember that this function does not take part in the recursion, that is, existing coordinate values are always used for its calculation. This feature is a development restriction.

Clicking the Start Calculation button starts multidimensional calculation on DB server. During calculation the progress bar is displayed in the lower part of the dialog box. When calculation is completed, a message with the calculation results is displayed.

See also:

Editing Formulas

Multidimensional Calculation on DB Server