1. User's Guide
  2. Ad Hoc Analysis
  3. Enabling Attribute Association Processing in Ad Hoc Grids

Enabling Attribute Association Processing in Ad Hoc Grids

Attribute association processing allows Essbase cells at intersections associated with attributes to display the value specified for the #Invalid/Meaningless option.

When you select Enable Attribute Association Processing, the attribute intersection cells that are called out have no association with the base dimension. In some cases, these cells may be varying attributes.

By default, the Enable Attribute Association Processing option is cleared. When cleared, the data values of attribute cells having no association to the base dimension are displayed as #Missing, instead of displaying the value specified in #Invalid/Meaningless.

Note:

When the Enable Attribute Association Processing option is selected, ad hoc query performance may be slower.

For example, suppose you create an ad hoc grid showing sales in bottles for all products in the Product dimension. For Cola and Diet Cola, bottles are not available, but bottles are available for all the other products in the Product dimension. In this case, the attribute Bottle has no association with Cola or Diet Cola.

With the Enable Attribute Association Processing option selected, cells for Cola and Diet Cola sales in bottles would display #Invalid by default, as shown in Figure 6-4. Note that you could define your own label for these cells.

Figure 6-4 Ad Hoc Grid with Enable Attribute Association Processing Selected


Ad hoc grid with all products and the Bottle attribute listed in the rows, with Sales listed in the column. January, New York, and Actual are in the POV. For Cola and Diet Cola, the intersection of Bottle and Sales shows #Invalid, indicating that these products in bottles have no association with the base dimension. For Diet Root Beer and Sasparilla, the intersection of Bottle and Sales shows #Missing. For all other products, the intersection of Bottle and Sales shows 1.

Clear the Enable Attribute Association Processing option, and cells at those same intersections, where the attribute is not associated with the base dimension, would display as #Missing, as shown in Figure 6-5. In this case, you do not know which attribute cells are actually missing data, and which attribute cells have no association with the base dimension and, therefore, would never contain data.

Figure 6-5 Ad Hoc Grid with Enable Attribute Association Processing Option Cleared


Ad hoc grid with all products and the Bottle attribute listed in the rows, with Sales listed in the column. January, New York, and Actual are in the POV. For Cola, Diet Cola, Diet Root Beer and Sasparilla, the intersection of Bottle and Sales shows #Missing. Since no cells show #Invalid, we aren't able to easily identify which products in bottles have association with the base dimension. For all other products, the intersection of Bottle and Sales shows 1.

To enable attribute data cells that have no association with the base dimension to display the label defined in #Invalid/Meaningless:

  1. From the Smart View ribbon, select Options, and then select Data Options.

  2. In the Replacement section:

    • Select Enable Attribute Association Processing.

    • For the #Invalid/Meaningless option, select #Invalid or specify a label to display in attribute cells that are not associated with the base dimension.

  3. Run the ad hoc query and note the cells containing the value you specified for #Invalid/Meaningless; these are the attribute cells that are not associated with the base dimension.