SAS 9.1.3 ETL Studio: Users Guide

Overview of Cubes

A cube is a logical set of data that is organized and structured in a hierarchical, multidimensional arrangement. It is a data store that supports online analytical processing (OLAP).

When you define a cube, you define the dimensions and measures for the cube along with information about how aggregations should be created and stored. There are two main ways to create a SAS cube:

• Use the Cube Designer wizard in SAS ETL Studio or SAS OLAP Cube Studio to define and create the cube. The Cube Designer generates a long form of OLAP procedure code that stores the cube definition in a metadata repository. If you specify the appropriate option, the wizard can submit a shorter form of OLAP procedure code to create the cube on the file system.

• Use the SAS OLAP procedure to create a cube. You can submit the OLAP procedure code interactively (using the Source Editor window in SAS ETL Studio or another SAS Program Editor), or you can submit the code in batch mode. The code stores the cube definition in a metadata repository, then creates the specified cube on the file system.