Profitability and Cost Management Attribute Dimensions

An attribute dimension is a special type of dimension that is associated with a business dimension. Attributes describe characteristics of data, such as the size and color of products.

You can use the attribute feature to retrieve and analyze data not only from the perspective of dimensions, but also in terms of characteristics, or attributes, of those dimensions. For example, you can analyze product profitability based on size or packaging, and you can make more effective conclusions by incorporating into the analysis market attributes such as the population size of each market region.

User-defined attributes (UDAs) can be associated with members of an outline to describe a characteristic of the members. Users can use UDAs to return lists of members that have the specified UDA associated with them. A UDA is like a text tag and can be added to a member easily, unlike an attribute which requires both creation of the attribute member in the attribute dimension as well as associating the attribute with the member.