You can use load rules to build attribute dimensions dynamically, to add and delete members, and to establish or change attribute associations.

Before you can work with attributes, the following dimension build operations are required:

• If the base dimension does not exist, you must build it.

• You must build the attribute dimension.

• You must associate members of the base dimension with members of the attribute dimension.

You can use any of the following approaches to perform these operations:

• Build the base and attribute dimensions and perform the associations all simultaneously. Doing so, you use a single load rule to build the base dimension and one or more attribute dimensions to associate each attribute with the appropriate member of the base dimension. Because this approach uses a single load rule, it can be the most convenient. Use this approach if the base dimension does not exist and each source data record contains all attribute information for each member of the base dimension.

• Build the attribute dimension and perform the associations in one load rule. Assuming that the base dimension is built in a separate step or that the base dimension already exists, you can build an attribute dimension and associate the attributes with the members of the base dimension in one step. You need only to define the attribute associations in the load rule. See Associate Attributes in a Dimension Build.

• Build the attribute dimension and then perform the associations using separate load rules. Assuming that the base dimension is built in a separate step or that the base dimension already exists, you can build an attribute dimension and associate the attributes with the members of the base dimension in separate steps. Build the attribute dimension, and then associate the attribute members with members of the base dimension. Use this approach when you build numeric attribute dimensions that are multilevel or that have members that represent different sized ranges.