Identifying Variables
Procedure
- Click the Variables tab to reveal
the following information, which displays a row for each variable
in the data source.
Variable Name
Variable Type
Sample Value
Contents
V1
String
New England
Ignore
Massachusetts
String
Massachusetts
Ignore
Boston
String
Boston
Ignore
Supermart
String
Supermart
Ignore
Feb
String
Feb
Ignore
V6
Numeric
2000000
Ignore
The first column of the grid assigns a Variable Name to each data source field. To assign your own variables, click the appropriate cell and enter a new variable name.
The second column assigns a Variable Type for each variable. This identifies the type of data in the source field. You can change the type by selecting one from the drop-down list.
The third column, Sample Value, lists the contents of the first record of the data source. In the above image, New England is the contents of the first field in the first record of example.cma.
The Contents column determines the data type (Element, Consolidation, Data, Attribute, Other, or Ignore) each variable identifies. In the example, the first three variables identify consolidations and elements of a regional hierarchy.
- In the Contents column for variable V1, select Consolidation from the drop-down list.
- Do the same for theMassachusetts variable.
- For the Boston variable, select Element.
- Select Ignore for all other variables,
as they will not be used to create the dimension.
Variable Name
Variable Type
Sample Value
Contents
V1
String
New England
Consolidation
Massachusetts
String
Massachusetts
Consolidation
Boston
String
Boston
Element
Supermart
String
Supermart
Ignore
Feb
String
Feb
Ignore
V6
Numeric
2000000
Ignore