MDX filtering by multiple dimension members - sql

Question

Problem
I need to create a report which will list a number of accounts that match certain criteria - simulationDate, statisticPeriod, region.
Right now my query looks like this:
WITH MEMBER [Measures].[Count] as 1
SELECT [Measures].[Count] ON COLUMNS,
NON EMPTY
Crossjoin(
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS,
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]},
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]},
{[region].[code].&[SO]}
)
ON COLUMNS
FROM [myWH]
Is this cross-dimensional filtering okay?

Answer 1

This is slightly more modern using the * notation instead of the Crossjoin function:
WITH
MEMBER [Measures].[Count] AS 1
SELECT
[Measures].[Count] ON COLUMNS
,NON EMPTY
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS*
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]}*
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]}*
{[region].[code].&[SO]} ON COLUMNS
FROM [myWH];
I'm assuming that your custom measure [Measures].[Count] is just a place-holder?
This table will be very wide if you have that cross-join on COLUMNS but that might just be a typo:
WITH
MEMBER [Measures].[Count] AS 1
SELECT
[Measures].[Count] ON COLUMNS,
NON EMPTY
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS*
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]}*
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]}*
{[region].[code].&[SO]} ON ROWS
FROM [myWH];
You have added the keywords NON EMPTY in front of the rows cross-join. This is telling the processor to exclude any rows that are empty - empty for [Measures].[Count] ....but this measure is never empty it is always equal to 1. So the following without Non Empty should return exactly the same result:
WITH
MEMBER [Measures].[Count] AS 1
SELECT
[Measures].[Count] ON COLUMNS,
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS*
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]}*
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]}*
{[region].[code].&[SO]} ON ROWS
FROM [myWH];
So in terms of filtering you aren't doing any - what sort of filtering do you need? If you replace [Measures].[Count] with an actual measure from your cube and use the NON EMPTY then you should see a lot less rows:
SELECT
[Measures].[ReplaceWithActualMeasure] ON COLUMNS,
NON EMPTY
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS*
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]}*
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]}*
{[region].[code].&[SO]} ON ROWS
FROM [myWH];

Answer 2

In the end I ended up using the filters as my columns, and letting the NON EMPTY clause take care of the filtering:
SELECT
NON EMPTY
{[simulationDate].[day].&[10010101]} *
{[statisticPeriod].[period].&[201201]} *
{[region].[code].&[SO]}
ON COLUMNS,
NON EMPTY
[Account].[Account Number].ALLMEMBERS
ON ROWS
FROM [myWH]