Measure Format Disappears in SSAS 2005

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) does not propagate formatting through calculations. IBM® Cognos® compensates for this whenever possible, but cannot guarantee to do so in all cases. As a result, if you are working with a Microsoft SSAS cube, any calculation (other than a non-count summary) that is based on or intersects with a formatted measure, such as a currency, may lose the measure format. This may also happen if you use a detail filter or context filter (slicer).

For example, a crosstab includes members on one edge and a measure with formatting, such as a currency symbol and decimal places, applied on the other edge. When you run the report, you see the formatting for each cell. However, if you add a detail filter, such as measure > 1 and run the report, all the formatting disappears.

Additionally, the fine details of the MDX generated by IBM Cognos Analytics can change from release to release. As the SSAS behavior depends on the MDX generated, the loss of formatting in reports might not occur in a future release.

To avoid this problem, specify explicit formatting for the affected row, column, or cell.