39955 - VisualTotals and other calculated members might return unexpected values in OLAP-based reporting

Problem Note 39955: VisualTotals and other calculated members might return unexpected values in OLAP-based reporting

The SAS^® OLAP Server uses a feature called "solve order" (see SAS Note 40007 to determine the order of precedence for calculations being performed in a query. Certain calculations, such as VisualTotals, have a predefined solve order than can cause user-written calculations to return unexpected values. For this reason, consider the solve order when defining the following calculations.

Measures that include a to-date function such as YTD and MTD. (For more information, see SAS Note 40029.)
Measures that include set-based calculations such as ClosingPeriod, OpeningPeriod, or ParallelPeriod.
Measures that add or subtract a constant value.
Calculated members that will be crossed with other calculated members or measures.

For these types of calculations, test the solve order before distributing your reports. If the numbers appear to be different from what you expect, then, instead, define the calculation to the SAS OLAP cube by using one of the following tools:

The DEFINE statement in the OLAP Procedure. See DEFINE statement
The Calculated Member Wizard in SAS^® OLAP Cube Studio. See Adding Calculated Members To A Cube
The EXECUTE statement in the SQL procedure. See Accessing OLAP Cubes from SAS: SQL Pass-Through Facility for OLAP
The MDX Editor in SAS^® Enterprise Guide^®. See the Help for that product.

These tools enable you to include a solve order property that correctly sets the precedence of the calculation. In cases involving VisualTotals, the solve order might need to be set to a value less than -4096. This value is the default solve order for the VisualTotals function as defined by the OLE DB for OLAP specification.

Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue. Without the hot fix, information map-based reports will not correctly use the solve order property defined on an OLAP cube. In addition, the SAS OLAP Server might not return correct results for the to-date functions and the AGGREGATE function. You must re-create any calculated members that are affected by this change.

Operating System and Release Information

Product Family	Product	System	SAS Release
Product Family	Product	System	Reported	Fixed*
SAS System	SAS OLAP Server	z/OS	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft® Windows® for 64-Bit Itanium-based Systems	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft® Windows® for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Microsoft Windows XP Professional	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Windows Vista	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Windows Vista for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled AIX	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled HP-UX	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		64-bit Enabled Solaris	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		HP-UX IPF	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Linux	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Linux for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		OpenVMS on HP Integrity	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0
		Solaris for x64	9.2 TS2M0	9.3 TS1M0

* For software releases that are not yet generally available, the Fixed Release is the software release in which the problem is planned to be fixed.

Type:	Problem Note
Priority:	alert
Topic:	Query and Reporting ==> OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)

Date Modified:	2010-06-22 09:54:25
Date Created:	2010-06-10 10:17:02

Support

Problem Note 39955: VisualTotals and other calculated members might return unexpected values in OLAP-based reporting

Operating System and Release Information