15,847,264 members Sign in

articles quick answers discussions features Search for articles, questions, tips

community help

Articles / Database Development / SQL Server / SQL Server 2008

SQL-Server-2005 SQL Windows SQL-Server Win2008 SQL-Server-2008 Win7

Win2008-R2 OLAP

Learn to Write Custom MDX Query

First Time
Mubin M. Shaikh Rate me: 4.77/5 (91 votes)

17 Jan 2014 CPOL 11 min read 353.2K 3.4K 76 22

Learn Custom MDX Query Step by Step

Download MDX queries - 3.1 KB

Introduction
In this article, we will go through some basic concepts and terminologies used while writing MDX
Queries on your OLAP Cube, We will also look into Why-What and How of MDX Query.

While we Google, we can find some good articles on this topic, but I did not find an article with all
stuff which I am looking for in one when I was searching as a beginner in this direction. So I have
taken this small step to write an article and share with you all, so you can Learn Custom MDX with
ease and enjoy.

Multi Dimensional Expression (MDX)

MDX Query Language is used to retrieve information stored in OLAP Cube created in various
technologies like Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services(SSAS), Oracle, Tera data, etc. Key difference
between MDX and T-SQL is MDX Query build Multidimensional View of the data, where T-SQL
builds Relational View. SQL Query designed to handle only two dimension while processing tabular
data. While MDX Can process more dimensions in Query.

MDX is also used to write expressions for custom calculation in Power Pivot and for creation of
Calculated member in OLAP Cube.

What do you mean by dimensions in Query? In general, we can say entities with related member
details using which you have planned to study & analyze Data in OLAP Cube.

Introduction to Basic Concepts Used within MDX Query

We need to have a clear idea in our mind about the various concepts and terminologies used while
working with MDX Query. Initially, I found it very confusing to understand all these when I was new,
but I don't want you to be stuck on this all, so let us begin.

Cube

OLAP Cube is the basic unit of storage for Multidimensional data, on which we can do analysis on
stored data and study the various patterns. You can take further idea on OLAP cube creation using
this article Create First OLAP Cube in SSAS.

Dimensions

The primary functions of dimensions are to provide Filtering, Grouping and Labeling on your data.
Dimension tables contain textual descriptions about the subjects of the business. Dimensions in
general we can say are the Master entities with related member attributes using which we can
study data stored in OLAP Cube Quickly and effectively.

Measure & Measure Groups

Metrics value stored in your Fact Tables is called Measure. Measures are used to analyze
performance of the Business. Measure usually contains numeric data, which can be aggregated
against usage of associated dimensions. Measure Group holds collection of related Measures.

To learn about Data Warehouse quickly refer to the article Create First Data Warehouse.

Take a look at the image given below which represents terminologies discussed above.

OLAP Database is container of Cubes. It is important to identify Cube Name before we start writing
our query. Then after we need to select Measure from appropriate Measure Group and use related
dimensions.
Introduction to Level, Member, Hierarchy

Let us take a look at brief descriptions of frequent terms used in MDX query.

Level

Generally Attributes under Dimension are considered as levels, they are also called as Attribute
Hierarchy.

Let's take an example of Date Dimension in this we have various levels like Quarter of the Year,
Semester of the Year, Week of the Year, Calendar Year, etc.

Members

Key component of the MDX query is member. Each Level contains one or more members.

e.g. Calendar Quarter of Year contains various members like CY Q1, CY Q2, CY Q3, CY Q4 .

User Defined Hierarchy

We usually create this type of hierarchy while designing OLAP Cube as per their relations. You can
refer Date Hierarchy shown in the figure shown below.
This hierarchy also contains various levels, by default Level 0 is reserved for [ALL] .

Background
Please refer to my previous articles if you are more interested to know about Data Warehouse and
OLAP Cube Creation using Microsoft Business Intelligence.

Here we are going to work with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Enterprise edition) .

Using the Code

Let us make Our Test Environment Ready

1. Here you need to download Adventure Works Data Warehouse from CodePlex Site.

Download Adventure Works Data Warehouse 2008 R2

2. Also download Analysis Services Solution created using this AdventureWorksDW2008 R2 from
CodePlex Site.

Download Adventure Works 2008 R2 Analysis Services Project

3.Check in Services.msc that your SQL Server Analysis services were up and running.

4. Configure Connection string in above SSAS Solution and Deploy your Cube.

5. Now Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and connect Analysis Services
using Windows Authentication.

Select Server type: Analysis Services-->Specify your SQL Server name: e.g. mubin-pc\fairy or
localhost -->Click: Connect

6. After Successfully Connecting to your SQL Server Analysis Server, you can view your OLAP Cube
Deployed, just do the drill down by clicking on + button.

7. Open New MDX Query Editor Window

Right Click on Database Name (Adventure Works DW 2008 R2)--> Select New Query --> Click
MDX
8. Now we are ready to start playing with MDX Query in our Query Editor Window.

Introduction to Axis in MDX Query

MDX queries can have 0, 1, 2 or up to 129 query axes in the SELECT statement. Each axis behaves
in exactly the same way, unlike SQL where there are significant differences between how the rows
and the columns of a query behave.

Refer to the following table for Axis Numbers reserved and Alias given to them:

Axis Number Alias

 0 Columns

1 Rows

2 Pages

3 Section

4 Chapter

Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), we can only browse values on two axis, Columns
(Axis 0) and Rows (Axis 1).

Getting Started With MDX

1. Start with Simple MDX Query

Syntax:

Select From [Your Cube Name] ;

Which will give you aggregated result as shown in result pane, MDX is not Case Sensitive except
member keys defined within dimension. This query will use default member defined in all the
dimensions and use default measure defined by OLAP cube designer.

You can do drag and drop of cube name, dimension members from left pane to query window
instead of typing. This query is also known as no axis query.

SQL
Select From [Adventure Works];
2. Dropping Dimensions on Axis

If we will not specify Axis for dimensions and measures, it may lead us to wrong result while design
change take place.

Example:

Retrieve all customer names on Columns from Adventure Works Cube.

Syntax

Select Dimension.Member on Column From [OLAPCubeName ]

or
Select Dimension.Member on 0 From [OLAPCubeName ]
SQL
Select [Customer].[Customer].[Customer] on 0
From [Adventure Works];

Select [Customer].[Customer].[Customer] on columns

From [Adventure Works];
As you can notice one thing here if your dimension is not associated with Measure Group, you can
have same values in each result cell against every customer.

But here we are trying to learn how we can bring Customer values on Columns, so we are not
focusing on Measures right now. Let us proceed with next.

3. Using Both the Axis (Rows & Columns)

You can select Dimension or Measure on any Axis.

Example:

Retrieve Internet Sales Amount As Per Customer. In other words, we can say show the Detail of
amount spent by customers during purchase from Internet.

Syntax

Select [Measure] on Columns,

[Dimension].[Members] on Rows From [Cube Name] ;

OR

Select [Measure] on Rows,

[Dimension].[Members] on Columns From [Cube Name] ;
SQL
Select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on Columns,
[Customer].[Customer].[Customer] on Rows
From [Adventure Works];
Here, you can see Measure Value (Internet Sales Amount) is properly getting divided as per the
customer.

Note: You can also do drag & drop of Measures and Dimension members from left vertical Pane
marked with number 2 to Query Designer portion number 3.

4. Introduction to .members, and .children in MDX Query

.Members

If you will use this with hierarchy level, then it will retrieve all the values below it and also bring
agreegation of that in the form of [ALL].

Syntax

Select [Dimension].[Hierarchy].members on Columns from CubeName

or
Select [Dimension].[Hierarchy].[Level].members on Columns from CubeName
SQL
Select [Measures].[Internet Average Sales Amount] on Columns,
[Product].[Category].members on Rows
From [Adventure Works];
.Children

When we want to retrieve all members values under particular level of a dimension at that time we
use .children ,This will exclude aggregation values [ALL] in your result set.

Syntax

Select [Dimension].[Hierarchy].[Level].children on Columns from CubeName

SQL
Select [Measures].[Internet Average Sales Amount] on Columns,
[Product].[Category].children on Rows
From [Adventure Works];

5. Introduction to Tuple and Set

Tuple:
When we need to place more than one members of a dimension or hierarchy of that dimension on
a axis at that time tuple comes into the picture, tuple is enclosed within curly bracket { }, for single
tuple bracket is optional.

We can say Tuple is used to identify particular location in the cube using your dimension members.
Tuple will define slice of your cube. Tuple can contain one or more members, but it cannot have
members from the same dimension.

This is example of tuples from same date dimension members. Combination of more than one
tuple will make a set.

Example:

View Internet Sales amount detail between year 2005 to 2007 using tuples.

SQL
select {[Date].[CY 2005], [Date].[CY 2006] , [Date].[CY 2007]} on rows,
[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns from
[Adventure Works];

Set:

A set is an ordered collection of zero, one or more tuples. A set is most commonly used to define
axis and slicer dimensions in an MDX query.

Combination of tuple or tuples will give you set , When You want to include range at that time you
can use : instead of separating tuple members by comma if they are belonging to same dimension
member.

Or

Syntax

{[Date].[CY 2008] : [Date].[CY 2005]} or {[Date].[CY 2005], [Date].[CY 2006] , [Date].[CY

2007]}
or
( [Date].[Calendar Year].members , [Product].[Product].members )

Example:

View Internet Sales amount detail between year 2005 to 2008

SQL
select {[Date].[CY 2008] : [Date].[CY 2005]} on rows,
[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns from
[Adventure Works];

To use combination of tuples from various dimensions, we have to use Cross Join that we will learn
soon.

6. Using CROSS JOIN

Cross Join Function returns cross product of one or more sets.

Whenever we need to combine more than one member from same or different dimension at that
time we can use cross join. * sign can be use to implement cross join between dimension members.

SQL
select {[Product].[Category].children * [Product].[Subcategory].children} on rows,
[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns from
[Adventure Works];
We can also use Cross Join Function to implement cross join between different dimension
members, but result will stay same if you use * or CrossJoin Function.

SQL
select CrossJoin([Product].[Category].children,[Product].[Subcategory].children) on rows,
[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns from
[Adventure Works];

7. Using Non Empty or NonEmpty

To element Null values from the result set, we can use NonEmpty() or Non Empty. Right now, I am
not discussing difference between Non Empty and NonEmpty function.

NonEmpty function evaluated first so it will remove rows if there was no data in first measure. Let us
take a look at the below example how we can remove null values from result set.

Non Empty or NonEmpty() function can be used on any Axis.

Example

Let us take a look on Cross join applied in below example, here you can see how we are retrieving
multiple measures by placing them between curly bracket{ } .

You can see null values in the result set while using following MDX Query.
 SQL
Select
CrossJoin([Product].[Category].children,[Product].[Subcategory].children,
[Product].[Product].children) on rows,
{[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount],[Measures].[Internet Freight Cost]} on columns
from [Adventure Works];

Now to eliminate these Null Values from Result Set using Non Empty.

SQL
Select
non empty CrossJoin([Product].[Category].children,[Product].[Subcategory].children,
[Product].[Product].children) on rows,
{[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount],[Measures].[Internet Freight Cost]} on columns
from [Adventure Works];

8. Apply Slicing using Where Clause

To Slice Data from cube we can use Where clause, it is similar to “where” clause we have in T-SQL.

Example
I want to see detail of Internet Sales Amount for each product in the Year 2007.

SQL
select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns,
[Product].[Product].[Product].members on rows
from [Adventure Works]
where [Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2007];

Example

If I want to see detail of Internet Sales Amount for each product in the Year 2007 and 2009.

SQL
select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns,
[Product].[Product].[Product].members on rows
from [Adventure Works]
where {[Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2007],[Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2009]};

9. Apply Filtering on data using Filter function

Filter function will also be used to apply filtering on members available in specified set as per the
specified Boolean condition.

Syntax:

Filter( <Set>, Boolean Condition)

SQL
select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns,
filter([Product].[Product].[Product].members ,
[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]>5000
)
on rows
from [Adventure Works]
where {[Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2007]};

Example: If I want to retrieve only those products whose names begin with “A” and Internet sales
amount <5000.

SQL
select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns,
filter([Product].[Product].[Product].members ,
([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]<19000 and _
left([Product].[Product].currentmember.name,1)="A")
)
on rows
from [Adventure Works]
where {[Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2007]};

10. Apply Sorting on your Data using Order Function

To sort your data you can use order function, using this function you can override default order
specified in the cube design.

Syntax

Order(<set>, Context, Asc | Desc|Bsc|Bdesc)

Example:

Retrieve all the products in descending order of their Internet sales amount of year 2007

SQL
select [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount] on columns,
order([Product].[Product].[Product].members ,[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount],desc)
on rows
from [Adventure Works]
where {[Date].[Calendar Year].[CY 2007]}

Hope you have enjoyed this article. In this beginner article, I have tried to give Initial start up to
technical newbies working in Microsoft BI and want to initiate in Learning Custom MDX.

We will learn about different MDX Functions and their usage in my next article on Advance Custom
MDX.

I have included many sample queries with appropriate comments , Please download for further
practise.

If you find this article helpful, then please do not forget to vote for me.

Credits
Source code may contain reference to the following where appropriate:

Microsoft Technet
Microsoft MSDN

Copyright
By uploading my code to codeproject.com, I assume I inherit all open source terms of use, licenses
and those specified by codeproject.com. However if you use this code for any purpose, I would
really like to hear about it. It is my belief that by referencing the credited people, I demonstrate the
ability to effectively read and re-use source code, rather than re-invent the wheel. I expect you
would do the same.

I always welcome suggestions from readers and experts for improvements.

Enjoy Learning MDX.

License
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project
Open License (CPOL)

Written By

Mubin M. Shaikh
Architect Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd.
India

Microsoft® Certified Professional (Microsoft Certification ID: 8918672).

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist with more than 16+ years of expertise to architect
and implement effective solutions for Data Analytics, Reporting and Data Visualization
solutioning need on Azure Cloud or On-Premise

Technology :
Azure (Data Lake, Data Factory, Synapse Analytics, Databricks, SQL),
Microsoft BI (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, SQL-Server), C#.Net, Pentaho,
Data Warehousing, Dimension modelling, Snowflake DW, SQL DW, MySQL
Data Visualization using (Tableau, Power BI, QlikView, Pentaho),
Domain : Sales, Retail, CRM, Public Transport, Media & Entertainment, Insurance
Data Integration and Analytics Experience with MS. Dynamic CRM, Salesforce CRM, Dataverse, SAP-
FI, Dynamics AX etc.

Linked In Profile:
Click Here to View Linked In Profile

Change will not come if we keep waiting for some other person !!, or keep waiting for some other
time !!, We are the one we are waiting for, We are the change that we are looking for.

Comments and Discussions

You must Sign in to use this message board.

 Search Comments

Spacing Relaxed Layout Normal Per page 25 Update

First Prev Next

MDX queries startup Deva31 23-Dec-20 1:14

My vote of 5 Parag V Deshmukh 30-May-19 20:25

Performance Issue with date filters in SSRS report Bkati 2-May-18 22:15
that is using MDX query as its source.

My vote of 5 Member 10908937 6-Apr-18 17:21

My vote of 5 Member 12662267 6-Jan-18 12:00

Really Helpful to understand MDX Member 11387842 9-Feb-17 15:39

Thanx! Erwin van der Stelt 17-Jan-17 0:40

Really good start up!! Member 12384903 10-Mar-16 23:49

Incorrect definition/example of tuple and set imneo007 10-Feb-16 13:50

Very good article..... Shoaib@CodeProject 4-Feb-16 8:26

Great! Unable to see Advance Custom MDX Member 11917432 18-Aug-15 3:41

Super like sadhwan 4-Aug-15 3:28

My vote of 5 K. Naveen. Bhat 1-Jul-15 6:01

Unable to see "Analysis Service" as server type Maddie from Dartford22-Mar-15 21:43

Re: Unable to see "Analysis Service" as server type Mubin M. Shaikh 23-Mar-15 6:21

Great intro kitjosh1050 5-Feb-15 1:36

Learn to Write Custom MDX Query First Time nikhil_power88 28-Oct-14 1:15

Great Article - took me from 0-60 in a flash ToeKnee581 30-Sep-14 4:03

Nice Shwetha Kotal 20-Jul-14 4:47

Very useful article Member 10800425 6-May-14 21:47

Good to start Soumik Das 28-Apr-14 22:44

Last Visit: 25-Feb-24 23:39 Last Update: 27-Feb-24 2:39 Refresh 1

 General News Suggestion Question Bug Answer Joke Praise Rant
Admin

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.

Permalink Layout: fixed | fluid Article Copyright 2014 by Mubin M.

Advertise Shaikh
Privacy Posted 14 Jan 2014 Everything else Copyright ©
Cookies CodeProject, 1999-2024
Terms of Use
Web02 2.8:2024-01-30:1