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Role playing dimensions, different data ranges?

  • October 17, 2007 at 8:36 am

    #183054

    I love the idea of using role-playing dimensions for things like dates: OrderDate, ShipDate, EstimatedPlotzDate, etc. They all share the same structure and theoretically the same data.

    On an order-entry system, the order date and ship date are usually close together. But what if the distance between date ranges can be decades? Think of contractual terms. SigningDate and ExpirationDate could be 50 years apart. If a user browses (via ProClarity, for example) the SigningDate dimension, I don't want them presented with the entire calendar hierarchy that includes dates fifty years in the future. Is there a way to still have these be role-playing dimensions but present different date ranges for browsing, or am I stuck making these 2 different physical dimensions?

    Thanks,

    Larry

    Larry

  • October 23, 2007 at 3:46 am

    #744398

    Whenever I have used role playing dimensions, I have had a layer of separation between the dimension table and the cube using a view.

    Is this a possibility in your situation to use different views of the date dimension table for different dimensions?

    Jez

  • October 23, 2007 at 6:13 am

    #744458

    Jez (10/23/2007)

    [snip]Is this a possibility in your situation to use different views of the date dimension table for different dimensions?

    Jez

    It is certainly possible and it is what I have done to get around the display problem. But it still defeats one of the purposes of using role-playing dimensions in SSAS. Even though by using a view I still only have one physical relational table, it is multiple physical dimensions in the cube.

    Larry

  • October 23, 2007 at 6:38 am

    #744471

    As you said in your original post, these are not the same dimension - one is SigningDate and the other is ExpirationDate. Yes they might both contain dates but they have different meanings in a business context.

    This is exactly what role playing is about - taking the same physical data and presenting it in (slightly) different ways.

    What you are doing is right.

    Jez

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