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| MDX Introduction and Overview |
MDX Overview
Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) is a powerful syntax that enables you to query multidimensional objects and provide commands that retrieve and manipulate multidimensional data from those objects. MDX is designed to ease the process of accessing data from multiple dimensions. It addresses the conceptual differences between two-dimensional and multidimensional querying. MDX provides functionality for creating and querying multidimensional structures called cubes with a full and complete language of its own.
MDX is similar to the Structured Query Language (SQL), and MDX provides Data Definition Language (DDL) syntax for managing data structures. However, its features can be more complex and robust than SQL's features. The SAS 9.2 OLAP Server technology uses MDX to create OLAP cubes and data queries. MDX is part of the underlying foundation for the SAS 9.2 OLAP Server architecture, and it offers detailed and efficient searches of multidimensional data.
With MDX, specific portions of data from a cube can be extracted and then further manipulated for analysis. This allows for a thorough and flexible examination of SAS OLAP cube data. Users of MDX can take advantage of such features as calculated measures, numeric operations, and axis and slicer dimensions.
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