Dimension with two names for each Key

Hi!

I need to build a dimension that offers two names for each entry.

For example, I have an electronics sparepart, a simple resistor that is called "abc-xy-12345" as company internal part number and also maybe "Resistor 1.0 kOhm 0.5 W" for a human being. Finally, for me as database guy, this part is a 4 byte integer number, I understand this is preferred to using the 15 byte part number. The dimension will have around 10,000 members when fully loaded, if that is important for the decision how to do it.

So I need to have a dimension that allows some of the users need to see the part as part number since they need to do a VLOOKUP in Excel or similar with the data, while the other usergroups needs to build a report upon the data, and they want to see a "self speaking name".

I do not want to build two nearly identical dimensions, what other way can I use to accomplish this?

If I add the order number to the text property of the key attribute and have another attribute on the long clear name, should this attribute be based on the integer for key as well and use name for the text?

Hi Ralf,

maybe the fastest way is create two attribute both with Key = your integer code.

One with Name = Company Part Number Name and the other with Name = Self Speaking Name

Francesco

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I was thinking that too, but where do you set the Key attribute to (the one that is displayed with the little golden key) for the dimension onto?

Anyone of the two, does not matter? Or have the ID alone (invisible) as the key as "anchor" and add the two names each as attribute?

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Hi Ralf,

the attribute with the little golden key is the attribute that has Set Attribute Usage = Key (right click on the attribute to check). It's used by AS as "unique key" in the dimension and in your case it has KeyColumn = your integer key code column .

Because both your attribute are at the lowest granularity in your dimension (1 member for every integer key code), you can:

use the one with Set Attribute Usage = Key (the one with the little golden key) with NameColumn set to the column you prefer (Company Part Number Name or Self Speaking Name)

then add another attribute (with Set Attribute Usage = Regular) with KeyColumn = your integer key code column and NameColumn = the other description you have.

Francesco