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Using Member Properties (MDX)

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Member properties cover the basic information about each member in each tuple. This basic information includes the member name, parent level, the number of children, and so on. Member properties are available for all members at a given level. In terms of organization, member properties are treated as dimensionally organized data, stored on a single dimension.

Note

In MicrosoftSQL Server, member properties are know as attribute relationships. For more information, see Attribute Relationships.

Member properties are either intrinsic or custom:

Intrinsic member properties
All members support intrinsic member properties, such as the formatted value of a member, while dimensions and levels supply additional intrinsic dimension and level member properties, such as the ID of a member.

For more information, see Intrinsic Member Properties (MDX).

User-defined member properties
Members often have additional properties associated with them. For example, the Products level may offer the SKU, SRP, Weight, and Volume properties for each product. These properties are not members, but contain additional information about members at the Products level.

For more information, see User-Defined Member Properties (MDX).

Both intrinsic and user-defined member properties can be retrieved through the use of the PROPERTIES keyword or the Properties function.

Using the PROPERTIES Keyword

The PROPERTIES keyword specifies the member properties that are to be used for a given axis dimension. The PROPERTIES keyword is buried within the <axis specification> clause of the MDX SELECT statement:

SELECT [<axis_specification>  
       [, <axis_specification>...]]  
  FROM [<cube_specification>]  
[WHERE [<slicer_specification>]]

The <axis_specification> clause includes an optional <dim_props> clause, as shown in the following syntax:

<axis_specification> ::= <set> [<dim_props>] ON <axis_name>

Note

For more information about the <set> and <axis_name> values, see Specifying the Contents of a Query Axis (MDX).

The <dim_props> clause lets you query dimension, level, and member properties using the PROPERTIES keyword. The following syntax shows the formatting of the <dim_props> clause:

<dim_props> ::= [DIMENSION] PROPERTIES <property> [,<property>...]

The breakdown of the <property> syntax varies depending on the property that you are querying:

  • Context sensitive intrinsic member properties must be preceded with the name of the dimension or level. However, non-context sensitive intrinsic member properties cannot be qualified by the dimension or level name. For more information about how to use the PROPERTIES keyword with intrinsic member properties, see Intrinsic Member Properties (MDX).

  • User-defined member properties should be preceded by the name of the level in which they reside. For more information about how to use the PROPERTIES keyword with user-defined member properties, see User-Defined Member Properties (MDX).

See Also

Creating and Using Property Values (MDX)