What are dimensions and dimension members?

Measures have dimensions that categorize the data in the measure. For example, a Sales measure might have Product, Time, and Geography as its dimensions. When a measure has a particular dimension, the measure is said to be dimensioned by that dimension. For example, Sales is dimensioned by Product. The group of dimensions for a measure constitute the dimensionality of that measure. For example, the dimensionality of Sales is Product, Time, and Geography.

Each element in a dimension is a dimension member. For example, January 2001, February 2001, March 2001, Quarter 1 2001, and the year 2001 are likely members of the Time dimension.

Measures can be dimensioned by more than three dimensions. In this document, we use a three-dimensional cube to present a virtual and easy-to-understand representation of multidimensional data.