Background

I had gone through this requirement and I could do this in time with the help of Mr.GregGalloway (Stack overflow user). You can find my question here in stack overflow.

If your cube has data with the types of string and numbers alone, finding the types will be too easy. Now before going through the processes listed in this article, if you don’t have only string and numbers as the types in the cube, this post will definitely help you.

If you are looking for some sample stored procedures that will help you with your development with your analysis services, you can always see it here: ASSP – Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project.

Using the code

Here we are going to create a function which accepts server name, database name, and the measure name collection in which we need to find out what type it is. The core part of this function will be a DMV query which we can run against our SSAS cube. The query will be as follows.

[sql]
select [CATALOG_NAME],[CUBE_NAME],MEASURE_NAME, DATA_TYPE,EXPRESSION,MEASURE_IS_VISIBLE,MEASUREGROUP_NAME,MEASURE_DISPLAY_FOLDER,DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING from $system.mdschema_measures
[/sql]

Now before going further, please make sure that you have included AnalysisServices Adomd Client.

[csharp]
using Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient;
[/csharp]

Now we will create the function which will give you the data about the datatypes of your measures.

[csharp]
#region Return the data types of measures
/// <summary>
/// FindMeasureDataTypes-Find the measure type whetehr it is a currency or a percentage or a number
/// </summary>
/// <param name="serverName"></param>
/// <param name="databaseName"></param>
/// <param name="myMeasureCollection"></param>
public DataTable FindMeasureDataTypes(string serverName, string databaseName, string myMeasureCollection)
{

try
{
string res = string.Empty;
List<string> myMeasures = new List<string>();

//Buiding the connection string start
StringBuilder sbConnectionString = new StringBuilder();
sbConnectionString.Append("Provider=MSOLAP;data source=");
sbConnectionString.Append(serverName + ";initial catalog=" + databaseName + ";Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;");
//Buiding the connection string start

AdomdConnection conn = new AdomdConnection(sbConnectionString.ToString());
myMeasures = myMeasureCollection.Split(new string[] { "||" }, StringSplitOptions.None).ToList();

for (int i = 0; i < myMeasures.Count; i++)
{
//Format the measure name
if (i == 0)
res += "MEASURE_NAME =’" + myMeasures[i].Replace("[Measures].", "").Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "") + "’";
else
res += " OR MEASURE_NAME =’" + myMeasures[i].Replace("[Measures].", "").Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "") + "’";
}

string query = "select [CATALOG_NAME],[CUBE_NAME],MEASURE_NAME, DATA_TYPE,EXPRESSION,MEASURE_IS_VISIBLE,MEASUREGROUP_NAME,MEASURE_DISPLAY_FOLDER,DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING from $system.mdschema_measures where " + res;
using (AdomdCommand cmd = new AdomdCommand(query, conn))
{
DataTable tblMeasureType = new DataTable();
AdomdDataAdapter da = new AdomdDataAdapter(cmd);
da.Fill(tblMeasureType);
return tblMeasureType;
}

}
catch (Exception)
{
return null;
}
}

#endregion
[/csharp]

So in the table tblMeasureType, we will get the data. In the column DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING , you can see the actual type of your measure. It will show as ‘Currency’ if it is a currency type and ‘Percentage’ if it is a percentage type and ‘#,##’ for the numbers. The DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING actually describes each measures which are all available in the cube. And DEFAULT_FORMAT_STRING rowset contains the following columns.

You can always check here to see for more information about MDSCHEMA_MEASURES Rowset.

As you can see the function accepts one parameter called myMeasureCollection, this is the collection of our measures and we are formatting the same as follows.

[csharp]
for (int i = 0; i < myMeasures.Count; i++)
{
//Format the measure name
if (i == 0)
res += "MEASURE_NAME =’" + myMeasures[i].Replace("[Measures].", "").Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "") + "’";
else
res += " OR MEASURE_NAME =’" + myMeasures[i].Replace("[Measures].", "").Replace("[", "").Replace("]", "") + "’";
}
[/csharp]

The myMeasureCollection is a string variable which has the values in the format of [Measures].[My Measure 1]||[Measures].[My Measure 2]||[Measures].[My Measure 3]. That is why we are splitting the values with || as follows.

[csharp]
myMeasures = myMeasureCollection.Split(new string[] { "||" }, StringSplitOptions.None).ToList();
[/csharp]

I hope everything is clear. Have a happy coding.

Conclusion

Did I miss anything that you may think which is needed? Have you ever wanted to do this requirement? Could you find this post as useful? I hope you liked this article. Please share me your valuable suggestions and feedback.

Your turn. What do you think?

A blog isn’t a blog without comments, but do try to stay on topic. If you have a question unrelated to this post, you’re better off posting it on C# Corner, Code Project, Stack Overflow, Asp.Net Forum instead of commenting here. Tweet or email me a link to your question there and I’ll definitely try to help if I can.

Kindest Regards
Sibeesh Venu

Background

For the past few months I have been working with Microsoft ADOMD data sources. And I have written some article also that will describe the problems I have encountered so far. If you are new to ADOMD I strongly recommend that read my previous articles that you may find useful when you work with ADOMD data sources. You can find those article links here: ADOMD Data Sources

Why

You might think, why I am not using other two ways (data adapter and cell set). I will answer it here. I am handling large set of data, so when I use data adapter and cell set it was bit slow to get the output. So I was just checking the performance by using data reader. It was fast enough when I use data reader. So we can order these three as following by performance.

Data reader >> Data Adapter >> Cell Set

Using the code

The following is the function that does what was explained above.

[csharp]
#region Convert Datareader toDatatable
/// <summary>
/// Convert Datareader toDatatable
/// </summary>
/// <param name="query"></param>
/// <param name="myConnection"></param>
public DataTable ConvertDataReaderToDataTable(string query, string myConnection)
{
AdomdConnection conn = new AdomdConnection(myConnection);
try
{
try
{
conn.Open();
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
using (AdomdCommand cmd = new AdomdCommand(query, conn))
{
AdomdDataReader rdr;
cmd.CommandTimeout = connectionTimeout;
using (AdomdDataAdapter ad = new AdomdDataAdapter(cmd))
{
DataTable dtData = new DataTable("Data");
DataTable dtSchema = new DataTable("Schema");
rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
if (rdr != null)
{
dtSchema = rdr.GetSchemaTable();
foreach (DataRow schemarow in dtSchema.Rows)
{
dtData.Columns.Add(schemarow.ItemArray[0].ToString(), System.Type.GetType(schemarow.ItemArray[5].ToString()));
}
while (rdr.Read())
{
object[] ColArray = new object[rdr.FieldCount];
for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
{
if (rdr[i] != null) ColArray[i] = rdr[i];
}
dtData.LoadDataRow(ColArray, true);
}
rdr.Close();
}
return dtData;
}
}
}

catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
finally
{
conn.Close(false);
}
}
#endregion;
[/csharp]

Here we are creating two data table dtData and dtSchema where dtData is for binding the data and dtSchema is for binding the schema.

Creating data tables

[csharp]
DataTable dtData = new DataTable("Data");
DataTable dtSchema = new DataTable("Schema");
[/csharp]

Execute data reader

Now we will execute the reader as follows.

[csharp]
rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
[/csharp]

Get the schema

To generate the schema, we can call the function GetSchemaTable() which is a part of your data reader.

To use this function, you must include Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.dll

Adding the columns headers to the dtData

The next thing is to add the header names to the data table dtData.

[csharp]
foreach (DataRow schemarow in dtSchema.Rows)
{
dtData.Columns.Add(schemarow.ItemArray[0].ToString(), System.Type.GetType(schemarow.ItemArray[5].ToString()));
}
[/csharp]

Load the data to dtData

To load the data, we are using a function LoadDataRow() which expects an object as parameter. This will find and updates a specific row, if the matching row is not found, it will create an another row with the given values.

Convert data reader to data table

[csharp]
object[] ColArray = new object[rdr.FieldCount];
for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
{
if (rdr[i] != null) ColArray[i] = rdr[i];
}
dtData.LoadDataRow(ColArray, true);
[/csharp]

Conclusion

Have you ever gone through this kind of requirement. Did I miss anything that you may think which is needed?. I hope you liked this article. Please share me your valuable suggestions and feedback.

Your turn. What do you think?

A blog isn’t a blog without comments, but do try to stay on topic. If you have a question unrelated to this post, you’re better off posting it on C-Sharp Corner, Stack Overflow, Asp.Net Forums or Code Project instead of commenting here. Tweet or email me a link to your question there and I’ll definitely try to help if I am able to.

Kindest Regards
Sibeesh Venu