SSRS mdx report: use dimension on columns

Question

This simple mdx query do work in SSMS:

SELECT  
CrossJoin({[Measures].[Qnt]},
          {[Sales_step].CHILDREN}) ON COLUMNS,
[City] ON ROWS  
FROM [SALES_PIPE]

But it fails to run within Visual Studio for rdl report. An error accures:

The query cannot be prepared: The query must have at least one axis. 
The first axis of the query should not have multiple hierarchies, 
nor should it reference any dimension other than the Measures dimension..
Parameter name: mdx (MDXQueryGenerator)

I've found another syntax to retrieve results, but it's cols are hardcoded and script is slow:

WITH 
MEMBER [Measures].[Contacts] AS 
       CASE WHEN [Sales_step].CURRENTMEMBER IS [Sales_step].&[contact]               
       THEN [Measures].[Qnt] ELSE null END
MEMBER [Measures].[Clients] AS 
       CASE WHEN [Sales_step].CURRENTMEMBER IS [Sales_step].&[client]               
       THEN [Measures].[Qnt] ELSE null END
MEMBER [Measures].[Funded] AS 
       CASE WHEN [Sales_step].CURRENTMEMBER IS [Sales_step].&[funded]               
       THEN [Measures].[Qnt] ELSE null END

SELECT {[Measures].[Contacts],
        [Measures].[Clients],
        [Measures].[Funded]} ON COLUMNS,

NON EMPTY     
FILTER(crossjoin({[City].CHILDREN},                            
                 {[Sales_step].CHILDREN}),
       [Measures].[Contacts] > 0 OR
       [Measures].[Clients] > 0 OR      
       [Measures].[Funded] > 0) ON ROWS 

FROM [SALES_PIPE]

The part, which makes it very slow - is not calculated members, it is crossjoin of City and Sales_step dimensions on rows, which I have to make (othewise, with City dim on rows only, - I get null results on columns). Any suggestions how can I make my mdx faster?

Out of interest: Did you ever get an answer to this?stackoverflow.com/questions/30568720/… — whytheq
Cheers 2whytheq! You are right. We should be very carefull when using Filter() and Crossjoin() functions together. It often makes mdx very slow. As you kindly proposed, I've replaced Filter() block with subcube request - and it made code to run much faster. Then I replaced CASE with IIF and it worked out better too. I will post a new code as an answer — Globe

whytheq whytheq · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-22T12:01:53

Does this give the same results? Is it any quicker?

WITH 
  MEMBER [Measures].[Contacts] AS 
    Sum
    (
      IIF
      (
        [Sales_step].CurrentMember IS [Sales_step].&[contact],
       ,[Measures].[Qnt]
       ,null
      )
    ) 
  MEMBER [Measures].[Clients] AS 
    Sum
    (
      IIF
      (
        [Sales_step].CurrentMember IS [Sales_step].&[client]
       ,[Measures].[Qnt]
       ,null
      )
    ) 
  MEMBER [Measures].[Funded] AS 
    Sum
    (
      IIF
      (
        [Sales_step].CurrentMember IS [Sales_step].&[funded]
       ,[Measures].[Qnt]
       ,null
      )
    ) 
  SET [yourMeasures] AS 
    {
      [Measures].[Contacts]
     ,[Measures].[Clients]
     ,[Measures].[Funded]
    } 
  SET [CitySales] AS 
    [City].Children * [Sales_step].Children 
  SET [CitySalesNonEmpty] AS 
    Union
    (
      NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Contacts])
     ,NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Clients])
     ,NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Funded])
    ) 
/*
//>>>>Alternative syntax for above union>>
  SET [CitySalesNonEmpty] AS 
      NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Contacts])
     +NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Clients])
     +NonEmpty([CitySales],[Measures].[Funded])
//>>>>
*/
SELECT 
  [yourMeasures] ON COLUMNS
 ,NON EMPTY 
    [CitySalesNonEmpty] ON ROWS
FROM [SALES_PIPE];

SSRS mdx report: use dimension on columns

3 Answers