Measures

In OLAP metadata, measures represent data, usually numeric and additive, that can be examined and analyzed. Values for facts or measures are usually not known in advance; they are observed and stored. Examples include Sales, Cost, and Profit. Fact and measure are synonymous; fact is more commonly used with relational environments, while measure is more commonly used with multidimensional environments.

An MDMeasure object represents a measure in the BI Beans. MDMeasure extends MDObject. MDMeasure objects do not contain other objects.

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, we say that the measure is dimensioned by the dimension. For example, Sales is dimensioned by Product. To find all of the measures that are dimensioned by a particular dimension, call oracle.dss.metadataManager.client.measuresOfDimensions.

The sum of the dimensions of a measure constitute the dimensionality of that measure. For example, the dimensionality of Sales is Product, Time, and Geography. To find the dimensionality of a measure, call oracle.dss.metadataManager.client.dimensionalityOfMeasures.