Calculating and Analyzing Data

How to calculate and analyze data using the OLAP DML

Typically, using the OLAP DML, you calculate and analyze data in the following ways:

• Perform common calculations using built-in OLAP DML functions that are described in detail in the OLAP DML Reference and outlined in "Categories of OLAP DML functions".

• Aggregate (or roll up) data in variables that are dimensioned by one or more hierarchical dimensions as outlined in "Aggregating Data".

• Create populated solution variables using the MODEL object as described in Chapter 7.

Categories of OLAP DML functions

The OLAP DML provides built-in functions for numeric analysis. The categories of these functions are described below.

Category	Description
Numeric cell-by-cell	Functions that operate on each cell of an expression or variable.
Time-series	Functions that retrieve values from a previous or future time period and perform calculations on those values.
Forecasts and regression	Functions that analyze trends in your data.
Statistical	Functions that perform calculations for statistical analysis.
Financial	Functions that perform calculations for financial analysis.
Aggregation	Functions that return an aggregate value, generally consisting of a single value for many values of the input expression.

For more information on the functions in these categories, see the categorized list of functions in the OLAP DML Reference. For more information on working with numeric expressions, see "Numeric Expressions".