Microsoft SQL Server is an enterprise database platform that contains a multitude of technologies, Analysis Services being one of them. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) provides OLAP and data mining capabilities and allows users to analyze multidimensional data stored in cubes using the MDX query language.

This cookbook contains over 80 practical, task-based recipes that show how Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services solutions can be taken further by enriching them with high-performance MDX calculations and flexible MDX queries.

Packed with immediately usable, real-world recipes, the book starts with elementary techniques that lay the foundation for designing further MDX calculations and queries. Here you will find topics such as iterations on a set, Boolean logic, and dissecting and optimizing MDX calculations.

In the first half of the book you will learn how to efficiently work with time, strings, metadata, calculated members and sets in general, and how to implement MDX solutions that are appropriate in a particular context: a time-aware calculation, a concise report, a calculation relative to another. You will also learn how to implement various types of conditional formatting, how to perform typical MDX calculations like ranks, percentages and averages, and year-to-date calculations.

The book then deep dives into topics such as enhancing cube design with utility dimensions, context-aware calculations, and other advanced topics. In this part you will learn how a utility dimension can be of great help, for example when you want to calculate histograms or implement time-based calculations. The advanced topics also cover parent-child hierchies, recursion, random values, and complex sorts.

Enrich your Business Intelligence solutions with over 80 recipes for high-performance MDX calculations and flexible MDX queries