Hierarchy Types

In Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, you can create two types of dimensions hierarchies:

• Stored Hierarchy

  • Members are aggregated according to the outline structure.

  • Because aggregate storage databases are optimized for aggregation, the aggregation of data values for stored hierarchies is very fast.

  • Stored hierarchies cannot have formulas.

  • All members in a stored hierarchy must use "+" or "~" consolidation.

  • Shared members are supported in the second hierarchy or later.

• Dynamic Hierarchy

  • Members and formulas are calculated, rather than aggregated.

  • Because dynamic hierarchies are calculated, the data retrieval time may be longer than for data retrieved from stored hierarchies.

  • Dynamic hierarchy can have formulas.

  • Dynamic hierarchies can contain any consolidation operator.

  • Use dynamic hierarchies sparingly. They are mainly used to isolate members requiring formula or "-" consolidation.

A dimension can contain both types of hierarchies. To use multiple hierarchies in a dimension (even if they are all stored hierarchies), you must enable multiple hierarchies for that dimension. When using multiple hierarchies, the first hierarchy must be stored.

You set the hierarchy type on the Edit Dimension Properties tab. See Editing Dimension Properties for information.