While trying to create an account dimension from an unbalanced SAP flatfile
we came across the issue that the hidememberif property is not working for no
"name" and "parentname" in SSAS 05.

The initial source table for the dimension has the following structure

Account|Accountgroup2|Accountgroup1
Account|Accountgroup1
Account|Accountgroup3|Accountgroup2|Accountgroup1
........

This one its own doesn't work as SSAS builds multiple hierarchies out of
this structure.

If the table is modified, so that in every record every colum empty column
is populated with the highest hierarchy ie:

Account|Accountgroup2|Accountgroup1|Accountgroup1
Account|Accountgroup1|Accountgroup1|Accountgroup1
Account|Accountgroup3|Accountgroup2|Accountgroup1
........

The dimension structure is properly build when the hidememberif property is
set to "parentname" in MSAS2K. IN SSAS05 the same settings result in a
dimension with a hierarchy where the redundant aggregations are duplicated.

We also had similar results with dimensions using the "noname" setting.

It might be a user error but it looks likely that the hidemembeif property
is not working properly in the SSAS05 RTM. We already found similar postings
about issues with other hidememberif properties which were unfortunately not
responded to.

Wea re now thinking about different approaches transforming a dimension
table into a parentchild table. Maybe you've got additional ideas how to
overcome this? Are there standard tools to transform tables into parentchild
strcuture?

I'd appreciate your feedback!



--
Greetings from down under!

Martin