1. Database Administrator's Guide for Oracle Essbase
  2. Work with Essbase Attributes
  3. Suppress Invalid Attribute Combinations in the Grid

Suppress Invalid Attribute Combinations in the Grid

An invalid attribute combination in Essbase occurs when, for a member intersection, an attribute is not assigned to the member, the assigned attribute is not within the scope of the query, or the attribute assigned to the member is incorrect.

On the grid, invalid attribute combinations are represented by #invalid. You can configure Essbase to suppress #invalid values by setting the GRIDSUPPRESSINVALID configuration setting to TRUE. Invalid attribute combinations are suppressed when the row contains all #invalid values. Valid combinations with #MISSING values are not suppressed.

This functionality applies to block storage and aggregate storage databases.

Consider the following outline:

Product (Color, Size)
   sku1 (Color: Red; Size: Small)
   sku2 (Color: Blue; Size: Small)
   sku3 (Color: Blue; Size: Medium)
Supplier
Geo (Dynamic Calc)
Customer (Dynamic Calc)
YearTime (Dynamic Calc)
Measures Accouts
Size Attribute [Type: Text]
   Small
   Medium
...Large
Color Attribute [Type: Text]
   Red
   Blue
   Green

The Size attribute dimension values are Small, Medium, and Large. The Color attribute dimension values are Red, Blue, and Green. In the Product dimension, each member is assigned a Color and Size attribute:

  • Member sku1 is assigned the color Red and the size Small attributes.

  • Member sku2 is assigned the color Blue and the size Small attributes.

  • Member sku3 is assigned the color Blue and the size Medium attributes.

When drilling down on the Product, Color, and Size dimensions, all combinations—including invalid combinations—are displayed on the grid. The values in the Supplier column are either #MISSING (these are valid combinations) or #invalid (these are invalid combinations).

When Essbase is configured to suppress invalid attribute combinations, the grid shows only valid attribute combinations, which are the combinations with a value of #MISSING.

Invalid combinations are not suppressed when there are values other than #invalid in a row.

Essbase suppresses all of the rows that contain the #invalid value only, which leaves the rows that contain a mixture of #invalid and #MISSING values.