MDX - 3rd + dimension example needed - ssas

Question

I am trying to learn MDX. I am an experienced SQL Developer.
I am trying to find an example of an MDX query that has more than two dimensions. Every single webpage that talks about MDX provides simple two dimensional examples link this:
select
{[Measures].[Sales Amount]} on columns,
Customer.fullname.members on rows
from [Adventure Works DW2012]
I am looking for examples that use the following aliases: PAGES (third dimension?), section (forth dimension?) and Chapter (fifth dimension?). I have tried this but I do not think it is correct:
select
{[Measures].[Sales Amount]} on columns,
Customer.fullname.members on rows,
customer.Location.[Customer Geography] as pages
from [Adventure Works DW2012]
I am trying to get this output using an MDX query (this is from AdventureWorks DW2012):

Answer 1

That's not a 3-dimensional resultset in your screenshot, unless there's something cropped from it.
Something like
SELECT [Geography].[Country].Members ON 0,
[Customer].[CustomerName].Members ON 1
FROM [whatever the cube is called]
WHERE [Measures].[Sales Amount]
(dimension/hierarchy/level names may not be exactly right)
would give a resultset like the one in your message.
The beyond 2nd-dimension dimensions and dimension names are not used in any client tool that I know. (Others may know different). They seem to be there in MDX so that MDX can hand >2-dimensional resultsets to clients that can handle them (e.g. an MDX subquery handing its results to the main query).
An often-used trick in MDX is to get the members of two dimensions onto one axis by cross-joining:
SELECT
{[Date].[Calendar Date].[Calendar Year].Members * [Geography].[Country].Members} ON 0,
[something else] ON 1
FROM [Cube]

Answer 2

How about the following - it does not send more than two dimensions back to a flat screen but it uses quite a few dimensions explicitly:
SELECT
[Measures].[Sales Amount] ON O,
[Customer].[fullname].MEMBERS ON 1
FROM
(
SELECT
[Date].[Calendar Month].[Calendar Month].&[February-2012] ON 0,
[Geography].[Country].[Country].&[Canada] ON 1,
[Product].[Product].&[Red Bike] ON 2,
[Customer].[Customer].&[foo bar] ON 3
FROM [Adventure Works DW2012]
)
I've made up the dimension | hierarchy | member combinations as I do not have access to the cube.
Also if we consider implicit dimensions then take the following:
SELECT
[Customer].[Location].[Customer Geography] ON 0,
[Customer].[fullname].[fullname].&[Aaron Flores] ON 1
FROM [Adventure Works DW2012]
WHERE
(
[Measures].[Sales Amount]
);
On the slicer I've used braces (..) which indicate a tuple, but this is actually shorthand for the following:
SELECT
[Customer].[Location].[Customer Geography] ON 0,
[Customer].[fullname].[fullname].&[Aaron Flores] ON 1
FROM [Adventure Works DW2012]
WHERE
(
[Measures].[Sales Amount]
,[Date].[Calendar Month].[Calendar Month].[All],
,[Geography].[Country].[Country].[All],
,[Product].[Product].[All]
,...
,...
....
);
The All member from every dimension in the cube could be included in this slicer without affecting the result.
So the whole nature of mdx is multi-dimensional - yes you do not get more than a 2 dimensional table returned to your screen but the way you get to that cellset could well involve many dimensions.