SAS OLAP member re-use

[metalray]

Hello,

I have used the concept of "shared members" with Oracle Hyperion Essbase OLAP and wonder how I can apply this concept to SAS OLAP.
We have a dimension that contains bottom level members that occur under multiple levels and parents and their siblings. The concept of "shared members" means that the data values associated with a shared member comes from another member with the same name. The shared member stores a pointer to data contained in the other member, and the data is stored only once. To define a member as shared, an actual nonshared member of the same name must exist.

For example, the 100-20 member under 100 stores the data for that member. The 100-20 member under Diet points to that value.

Shared members typically are used to calculate the same member across multiple parents; for example, to calculate a Diet Cola member in both the 100 and Diet parents.

Is there a similar concept in SAS or would I have to ensure members have unique names and are hence stored multiple times in the cube?

[TSBruce]

Currently, SAS OLAP does not have the concept of shared members. However, SAS9.3, due out later this year, will introduce the concept of shared dimensions. Based on what you are describing, perhaps these shared dimensions would allow you to accomplish what you need. There will be a SAS Global Forum paper presented on this topic, so I would suggest taking a look at the proceedings once they are posted.

http://support.sas.com/events/sasglobalforum/2011/index.html

[metalray]

Amazing. Thanks for the info TSBruce.