Question

i need to create a cube based on sales for multiple branches but im not sure how to approach the fact that each branch may use the same product code. in vs 2008 it wont process the cube because it sees that this code is duplicated in my master product file which also ha a branch id field to differentiate for standard queries

anyone any idea how to go about setting up a cube in this scenario?

tables (only some for illustration)

• transactions (all branches – has branch id and product id)
• products (master file – has branch id and product id)
• users (links to transactions)
• branch table (links to transactions)

basically there are four dimensions to this cube users, products, branch and a time dimenension based on a field in transactions.

The products field is the main issue though. DB design is restricted due to the application

thanks for any help in advance!

Answer 1

the solution for this was to add an extra field to the tables which have duplicate keys, this field i have called a business logic key. This is unique for each product irrespective if the product code reappears the BLK will still be unique, simply add this to the products table and the transactions table and run a simple sql query to update transactions with your BLK and use this for the olap cube – sorted 🙂