MDX Tutorial : Generate MDX visually for SSAS using ProClarity

In OLAP / SSAS parlance, at least basic knowledge of MDX is a de-facto requirement. There are quite a few books published on SSAS flavor of MDX. It can be said that MDX is one of the best kept secrets in OLAP, as number of books and reference material available is scarce. Also understanding of Cube and developing the slicing query keeping N number of axis in mind is also not easy.

BIDS does a good job by providing MDX query editor with intellisense. Still my experience with Proclarity has been sweeter than with BIDS. Just try and use Proclarity Desktop Professional v6.3 for a visual experience of slicing and dicing Cube ( which is similar to Office Web Component in BIDS for browsing data ) and for generating MDX just by drag and drop.

Also Proclarity has some of the fascinating charts and bars which are still not available in Performancepoint Analytics module. Though Proclarity has been procured by Microsoft long back, but as per my views, it still stands taller where it comes to OLAP data analysis.

Visit the Tutorials link from the Community section for series of MDX articles and MDX tutorials on SSAS flavor of MDX.