An Essbase database may contain duplicate member names.
Users can view the qualified name of a member directly on the worksheet or by using the Comment functionality of Excel. The qualified name includes the member name and the names of its ancestors to the level that uniquely defines the member.
The qualified member name is displayed in this format:
[DifferentiatingAncestor].[Ancestors...].[Member]
The number of members in the qualified member name depends on the number of levels needed to uniquely define the duplicate member.
You can display the qualified member name as a cell comment. If a member is a duplicate, the cell contains a cell comment indicator. Hover over the comment indicator to view the qualified member name. You may also opt to display the qualified member name directly on the worksheet.
Note that in the Essbase Member Selection dialog box in Spreadsheet Add-in, if duplicate members are selected, you can hover over the duplicate member names in the Rules list box to view the qualified member name regardless of the comment settings made in Excel.
When viewing the qualified member name as a cell comment, you see the qualified member name between the <esskey></esskey> identifier; for example:
<esskey>[East].[New York]</esskey>.
After a Save or Save As operation, the qualified member name in the cell comment field is displayed between the <esskey></esskey> and <essdisp></essdisp> identifiers; for example:
<esskey>[East].[New York]</esskey><essdisp>[East].[New York]</essdisp>
Do not edit the text between the <esskey></esskey> identifier or the <essdisp></essdisp> identifier (which is displayed after a save operation until the next Retrieve). These identifiers appear in the comment field regardless of the Qualified Member Name display settings. Changing the text between the identifiers may invalidate the worksheet.
Note that you can enter comments before or after the identifiers and that these comments are retained by Essbase with each retrieval.