OLAP cubes are great for summarizing data very fast – I love them . In certain environments, HIPAA compliance for personally identifiable data might be a concern. Even at the lowest grain of a cube it might be possible to identify the specific detail data beneath the surface if the summarized number is small enough. For example, if a report shows the number of people that work for a company in a county of a state that are over the age of 50 – it may be beneficial to hide the statistic to protect the identity of that sample size. Using MDX logic, we can dynamically hide measures that meet a certain criteria. In the MDX code below, I have added an additional measure to the OLAP cube I used for SAS Global forum in 2011. It will aggregate the Total Sales measure like normal but if the Total Sales measure is less than 50,000 it will show nothing. DEFINE Member “[SGF2011].[Measures].[Restricted Total Sales]” AS ‘iif([Measures].[Total Sales]<50000,NULL,[Measures].[Total Sales]),FORMAT_STRING = “DOLLAR20.0″‘; The Enterprise Guide screenshot to the right shows the output! Secure the Original Measure with Metadata Permissions One concept I always promote with writing MDX code is […]
Tag: OLAP Cube Studio
OLAP Cube Studio: Looking at PROC OLAP Code
If you have never worked with OLAP code – then you might be curious how it works and what it looks like. Some developers use SAS OLAP Cube Studio to start their cube building process since it saves some of the typing required. Let’s review some of the code. [Adv Users: check out Steve’s posts about OLAP Code] Exporting PROC OLAP Code There are two methods to export your cube to a SAS program from SAS OLAP Cube Studio. Use Method 1 after you have added custom measurements. Click cube name > Export Code. The Export Code window appears. Use Method 2 after you have completed the Cube Designer wizard. Click the Export Code button. The Export Code window appears. From the Export Code window you can select if you want standard (long) OLAP procedure code or the shorten code. Either way – just add the path and program name. [More at SAS Support about when to use short/long form. ] Under the Hood After opening the BUILD_GA_BLOGSITE.sas program in Enterprise Guide, you see how the OLAP procedure code appears. You can learn to code your own cubes, just by reviewing how the OLAP wizard wrote the code. For instance, […]
Peek Inside SAS BI Book: Building Business Intelligence with SAS
You may be aware by now, our new SAS BI book Building Business Intelligence with SAS:Content Development Examples launched last week on the SAS Press site. That’s right, SAS Press or Amazon will be delighted to bring a copy of this SAS BI book to your door. When Angela and I set out to write this book, one of the first things we discussed was how new users get access to the SAS BI toolset and have no idea of its astonishing capabilities. This book guides you through each one so you understand it. Intermediate and advanced users will also find this book as a valuable reference. Several times, Angela & I have both found ourselves pulling out the draft copy to reference an advanced technique. This book fulfills a unique spot in the marketplace; there is no other single book that leads you through each SAS BI component with step-by-step examples along with hundreds of tips and techniques to make you successful! SAS Institute offers over nine SAS BI courses to cover all the topics we have jammed packed into this book. Making this an excellent study guide for those planning to take the SAS BI Content Development Exam. Your SAS […]
Best Practices: To Write or Not to Write PROC OLAP… That is the Question
There are 2 ways to develop OLAP cubes in the SAS EBI platform: using SAS OLAP Cube Studio or by writing the PROC OLAP statement by hand and submitting the SAS program. There are pros and cons for both that I will go through in this post. Personall…
SAS OLAP Cube Studio 9.3: New screen layouts
I installed the updated SAS Business Intelligence package (version 9.3), but mostly I have been playing with the stored process interface where there were some major changes (more about that in future posts). This morning I opened SAS OLAP Cube Studi…