How to make MDX Range operator less restrictive? - mdx

Question

I have a date dimension I want to filter on. I use MDX Range (:) operator for that. The problem is it appears that range bounds must be valid members of a set. I have IntDate attribute in my Date dimension, and it's an integer in the YYYYMMDD format. When I browse the dimension, there are 20120705 and 20120706 values, but not 20120704 or 20120707. Still, as far as range is concerned, both 20120705:20120706 and 20120704:20120707 encompass 20120705 and 20120706 and I hoped would return 20120705 and 20120706. But when first one works as expected, second returns empty set. The reason I need loose range to work is that users may enter date range that is not based on data in the dimension. How can I make this work?
The one that works:
The one that returns empty set.
Thank you,
Vlad.

Answer 1

Since your 20130707 member doesn't exist, the cube can't know where it was supposed to go.
It seems odd that you have a date dimension that doesn't contain all of the days in a month. I would suggest repopulating your date dimension so that it has all dates. You can get a fully populated date dimension from the Azure data market if you are using a tabular cube. If you are using multidimensional, you can have SSAS generate one for you. If you have parameters built off of dates, you can limit the list to populate them to show only the data for which there are measures using Exists.
I also wonder why you want users to enter dates rather than choose dates from a valid list. How do you handle the errors when they enter a value that is simply invalid? It seems the easiest/safest choice is to give them the list of dates from which to choose. If they are entering things that don't have data and you have error handling, the result should be the same as if they choose from a valid list.
That being said, you should be able to so something like the below. I check to see if the date is a valid member. If it isn't I substitute the first valid member I find in the list of members (you could choose your own date and insert it there). For the end of the range, I find the last valid member (again, you can substitute your own value).
{Iif(Count(Exists([Date].[Int Date].members, [Date].[Int Date].[20130704]))>0,[Date].[Int Date].[20130704], [Date].[Int Date].firstchild):
Iif(Count(Exists([Date].[Int Date].members, [Date].[Int Date].[20130707]))>0,[Date].[Int Date].[20130707], [Date].[Int Date].lastchild)}