1. Database Administrator's Guide for Oracle Essbase
  2. Dimension and Member Properties
  3. Create UDAs

Create UDAs

You can create user-defined attributes (UDA) for Essbase members. For example, you might create a UDA called Debit. Use UDAs in calculation scripts or when loading data into the cube.

  • UDA in Calculation scripts. After you define a UDA, you can query a member for its UDA in a calculation script. For example, you can multiply all members with the UDA Debit by –1 so that they display as either positive or negative (depending on how the data is currently stored). See Develop Calculation Scripts for Block Storage Cubes.

  • UDA in Data loading. You can change the sign of the data as it is loaded into the database based on its UDA.

To perform a calculation, selectively retrieve data based on attribute values, or provide full crosstab, pivot, and drill-down support in the spreadsheet, create attribute dimensions instead of UDAs. See Comparison of Attributes and UDAs.

Note:

On aggregate storage databases, using UDAs to define member groups greatly decreases the execution speeds of Essbase functions. To avoid this performance loss, use attribute dimensions to define member groups.

Observe the following guidelines when creating UDAs:

  • You can define multiple UDAs per member.

  • You cannot set the same UDA twice for one member.

  • You can set the same UDA for different members.

  • A UDA name can be the same as a member, alias, level, or generation name. Follow the same naming rules as for members. See Naming Conventions for Dimensions, Members, and Aliases.

  • You cannot create a UDA on shared members.

  • You cannot create a UDA on members of attribute dimensions.

  • A UDA applies to the specified member only. Descendants and ancestors of the member do not automatically receive the same UDA.

To add, remove, or update UDAs using the Essbase web interface, open the outline for editing, select a member, and edit its properties. Click User-defined Attributes. For more details, refer to Create User-Defined Attributes.

If you are using an application workbook or Cube Designer to add or edit a UDA, update one or more UDA properties on the relevant dimension worksheet.


On the Sample Basic Market dimension worksheet in an application workbook, the editable UDA.UDA1 and UDA.UDA2 properties follow the attribute association column.

If you use REST API to edit the outline, you would update the value of the udas property of mbrInfo to add, remove, or replace UDAs when performing a member add or update action. Refer to documentation for the endpoint Run Batch Outline Edit.