Member Aliases

Dimension members are usually referenced by their unique name, but they may also have multiple Aliases. For example, a Member called "January" might have aliases like "janvier" or "Jan". Aliases are organized by Alias groups, which allow you to specify categories of aliases for all Members in a Dimension. The Aliases above may correspond to Alias groups "French full name" and "Abbreviation" respectively. The Alias commands, shown in the margin, allow you to define Alias names and Alias groups for ranges of Members.

Alias Groups

The use of Aliases can give you enhanced reporting capabilities—you can create reports with Alias names that are, for example, product codes rather than product names, or with different-language translations of Members (the months in Danish, for example) for different audiences within the company.

Important


Aliases must be 'unique' within a Dimension— i.e., the selected Alias field must have a unique name for each Member. In addition, an Alias name for a Member cannot be the same name as a different Member in the Dimension.

 

 

To create Member aliases from the Dimension Hierarchy dialog box, complete the following steps:

1.   Select a Member in the Member List box on the left-hand side that you want to assign to an Alias group (this exercise uses the Month dimension).

2.   Click the Member Aliases button on the toolbar (circled in the following figure), or right-click the Member name in the Member box and select Alias from the pop-up dialog. The Alias dialog box is displayed (in the example below, January is the selected Member):

3.   Single-click the Add Group button.         
"Group 1" is displayed below the Alias Group tab. You can double-click on the name (e.g., Group1) to rename the group.            
In the example shown below, French full name has been entered.

4.   Double-click under the Alias tab and type <Alias name>          
e.g., janvier.

5.   Click OK.          
You are returned to the Dimension Hierarchy dialog box.

6.   Click on the Alias Groups button. This allows you to create Aliases and new Alias groups for all the Members in the Dimension at once, to change Group or Alias names, or to Add or Delete groups.

7.   In the above dialog box, continue typing the French full name for each month and click OK when done.

8.  Back in the Dimension Hierarchy dialog, click OK button (green checkmark) and OK again in the Dimensions dialog.