Alternate Drill Path

[dssd]

How do i decide if i should use a alternate drill path or a separate dimension?

[RKMI]

Hi,

I tend to use alternative drill path, when two set of user groups would like to have different drill down path.

eg. Product dimension for one group can be Product Line > Product Type > Product Brand > Product SKU. Another group can be Product Line > Product Type > Product SKU. It's just way to navigate down to lowest level based on user group's analysis.

You would generally create separate dimension when categories are not alike such as Time, Product, Customer, etc... These dimension can also be shared between multiple groups.

Thanks,
RK

[cognostechie]

How do i decide if i should use a alternate drill path or a separate dimension?

The purpose of alternate drill path is to reduce the number of categories in the cube. So if the lowest level of two heirarchies is the same, then it is better to create an alternate drill down instead of another dimension so that the categories of the lowest level are made only once instead of twice.

The example RLMI provided says that the lowest level is Product SKU .