Bringing in external data for OLAP cubes

[vivek_vdc]

Can we bring in external data from a spreadsheet to join with OLAP Cubes in workspace advanced and create reports using a field from OLAP cube and another from external data? I am thinking the answer is No. I just need a technical explanation for it.

[MFGF]

Can we bring in external data from a spreadsheet to join with OLAP Cubes in workspace advanced and create reports using a field from OLAP cube and another from external data? I am thinking the answer is No. I just need a technical explanation for it.

Hi,

The accurate answer here is no - joining is a relational concept, so is not part of the OLAP paradigm. This means you can't join your external data to your cube data directly.

What you can do, however, is to bring in the external data and use it in (say) a list, then drag a crosstab into the list and populate this with your OLAP data. You can then set up a master/detail link between the list and the crosstab. Just bear in mind that what you see in the OLAP crosstab is usually member captions, but under the covers the members are identified by their MUNs. You will probably need to create query calculations to extract the captions then use these in the master/detail.

Cheers!

MF.