1. Database Administrator's Guide for Oracle Essbase
  2. Naming Conventions for Essbase
  3. Naming Conventions for Dimensions, Members, and Aliases

Naming Conventions for Dimensions, Members, and Aliases

When naming dimensions, members, and aliases in the database outline, follow these rules:

  • Use no more than 1024 bytes when naming non-Unicode-mode dimensions, members, or aliases.

  • Use no more than 1024 characters when naming Unicode-mode dimensions, members, or aliases.

  • Names are not case-sensitive unless case-sensitivity is enabled.

  • Even when case-sensitivity is enabled, in an aggregate storage outline for which duplicate member names is enabled, do not use matching names with only case differences for a dimension name. For example, do not name two dimensions Product and product.

  • Duplicate member names or aliases are not allowed as siblings in a dimension.

  • Do not use quotation marks (" "), brackets ([ ]), newlines, or tabs in dimension, member, or alias names.

  • Do not use the following characters to begin dimension or member names:
    Character Description
    @ at sign
    \ backslash
    / forward slash
    { } brace
    , comma
    - dash, hyphen, or minus
    = equal sign
    < less than sign
    ( ) parentheses
    . period
    + plus sign
    ' single quotation mark
    _ underscore
    | vertical bar

  • Do not place spaces at the beginning or end of names, as they are ignored.

Do not use these words as dimension, member, or alias names:

  • Calculation script commands, operators, and keywords

  • Function names and function arguments

  • Names of other dimensions and members (unless the member is shared), and generation names, level names, and aliases in the database

  • @_NULL, $$$UNIVERSE$$$, and #MISSING

  • Words reserved for Sandbox dimensions, including "Base" or any name beginning with "sb"

The following list of words are not strictly prohibited; however, Oracle recommends that you avoid using these words unless you are certain that doing so will not cause unanticipated problems:

ALL
AND
ASSIGN
AVERAGE
CALC
CALCMBR
COPYFORWARD
CROSSDIM
CURMBRNAME
DIM
DIMNAME
DIV
DYNAMIC
EMPTYPARM
EQ
EQOP
EXCEPT
EXP
EXPERROR
FLOAT
FUNCTION
GE
GEN
GENRANGE
GROUP
GT
ID
IDERROR
INTEGER
LE
LEVELRANGE
LOOPBLOCK
LOOPPARMS
LT
MBR
MBRNAME
MBRONLY
MINUS
MISSING
MUL
MULOP
NE
NON
NONINPUT
NOT
OR
PAREN
PARENPARM
PERCENT
PLUS
RELOP
SET
SKIPBOTH
SKIPMISSING
SKIPNONE
SKIPZERO
TO
TOLOCALRATE
TRAILMISSING
TRAILSUM
UMINUS
UPPER
VARORXMBR
XMBRONLY
#MI