MDX calculations in Anaplan XL

These examples show how to use OLAP in Anaplan XL Reporting to improve analyses.

To create a custom-calculated member:

• Open the Manage Calculations box from the Anaplan XL > Custom Calculations ribbon. 
• Select the Insert a new calculated member toolbar button. 
• Fill in these fields:
  • Name: The name of the new calculated member.
  • Parent hierarchy: The hierarchy the calculated member will belong to.
  • Parent member: The unique name of the parent member for the new calculation. If no member is specified, the calculated member will be created at the top level of the hierarchy.
  • Expression: The MDX expression for the calculated member. Use the tree view on the left to drag and drop members into the expression. All calculated members in the workbook appear on the left. 
• To edit a calculation, select it, then overwrite the fields on the right.
• To delete a calculation, select the calculation and select Delete the selected calculation.

A named set is a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) expression that returns a set of dimension members. You can create named sets at the cube level or within an application such as Anaplan XL. Create named sets by combining cube data, arithmetic operators, numbers, and functions.

1. In the Manage Calculations box, select Insert a new calculated set.
2. A new calculation appears with two fields on the right:
   • Name: The name of custom calculations.
   • Expression: The expression needs to be inside braces as below { } and separated by commas (see example below).

You can drag and drop or type the dimension, hierarchy, or members from the left into the Expression section For example, you can create a named set, RacksAndStands, which is a grouping of Bike Racks and Bike Stands. The expression is:

{[Product].[Product Model Categories].[Subcategory].&[26],[Product].[Product Model Categories].[Subcategory].&[27]}

To use a named set within a report:

1. Go to the Member Selector of the hierarchy/dimension that the named set is linked to.
2. Under the Advanced tab, select the Member Set icon.
3. Select the named set and select OK.

You can then select to include or exclude the named set in your report.

You can flag a set as being dynamic, which means they'll be calculated when the query is run. This is useful when the members in the set change based on the slice being analyzed. For example Top 10 products, with the year changing in a slicer.

In Custom calculations, you can switch from showing unique names to captions by selecting the link under the Expressions section of the Manage Calculations window.

Custom scripts can run any piece of MDX script you need to alter your cube. There's a restriction in Analysis services that each command can only contain one MDX statement.

The most common use of these is to create Scope assignments.

You can import and export XML files containing the calculations in the current workbook.

• Microsoft listing of MDX functions