How to get the Last Month value of a Measure for a Period in MDX...

There was a requirement to show only the last month value for a particular measure, for the given period.
If the period is 2016, then it show the measure value of the 2016 Dec.
If the period is 2016 Q3, then the measure value has to be 2016 Sep.

I was able to achieve it, by creating a calculated measure using ClosingPeriod function.

Formula of the Calculated Measure is as below

(ClosingPeriod([DimDate].[Year-Quarter-Month].[Month], [DimDate].[Year-Quarter-Month].CurrentMember),[Measures].[Count])

You can test it using the below MDX Query as well.

WITH MEMBER [Measures].[LastMonthValue]
AS (ClosingPeriod([DimDate].[Year-Quarter-Month].[Month], [DimDate].[Year-Quarter-Month].CurrentMember),[Measures].[Count])

SELECT NON EMPTY { [Measures].[LastMonthValue] } ON COLUMNS
 FROM [CubeName]
WHERE STRTOSET(@Period,CONSTRAINED)

Hope this will be helpful...

We couldn't complete the updates, Undoing changes in Windows 10...

I was facing the issue while restarting my laptop with Windows 10 as "We couldn't complete the updates, Undoing changes..".
I tried some of the options available in internet, but I was able to finally fix it by using the "Fix problems with Windows Update", troubleshoot option available in Windows 10.

You can do it using the below steps.

Go to the Control Panel and click on the "Find and fix problems" under "System and Security"

Then click on the "Fix problems with Windows Update" under "System and Security".

It will guide you to identify and fix the problems with the windows updates. This works for me and hope it will be useful for you as well.

Split comma separated values in a column to multiple columns in SQL...

In this post I am sharing how to split comma separated values in a column to multiple column in SQL.
In this case, we have a table with two columns. One is with the Code and the other column with the seven number values separated by a comma as Numbers

Code           Numbers
A                10,2,55,5,67,11,45
C                1,32,5,15,7,71,35
--                 ---------------------

The expected output is as below

Code          V1  V2  V3  V4  V5  V6  V7
A                10     2   55    5    67  11   45
C                   1   32    5   15     7   71  35


It can be achieved by using the below query.

SELECT Code, [1] AS [V1],[2] AS [V2],[3] AS [V3],[4] AS [V4],[5] AS [V5],[6] AS [V6],[7] AS [V7]
FROM (
    SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY [Code] ORDER BY (SELECT  null)) as rn
FROM (
    SELECT [Code], [Numbers]
    FROM [SampleTable]
) as a
CROSS APPLY string_split([Numbers],',')
) as SourceTable
PIVOT
(
    MAX([value])
    FOR rn IN ([1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7])
)as pivotTable

Hope this will be helpful...

Download SQL Server 2016 Developer edition for free...

Use the below link to download SQL Server 2016 Developer edition for free

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/sql-server-editions-developers

Also under the Subscription, you can download the some other useful software as shown in the below image, under the Visual Studio Dev Essentials subscription.

Hope this will be helpful.

#Error while showing DateTime field with Blank or Space in a SSRS Report...

In a SSRS Report, DataSet returns a column which contains datetime values in string data type.
Due to that it contains values with spaces or blank. Let assume the particular field name is "DateValueField".
To show that in the SSRS Report, initially the below expression is used.

=IIf(IsNothing(Fields!DateValueField.Value) OR LTRIM(RTRIM(Fields!DateValueField.Value))="", "", FormatDateTime(Fields!DateValueField.Value, DateFormat.ShortDate))

Eventhough the above expression seems to be correct, when we ran the report, it gives the value as #Error for the rows which contains Blank or Space for the DateValueField.
But it gives the correct value for the rows which contains a valid datetime value.

Actually the issue exists with SSRS IIF expression and to overcome that, we have to modify the IIF expression as below.

=IIf(IsNothing(Fields!DateValueField.Value) OR LTRIM(RTRIM(Fields!DateValueField.Value))="", "", FormatDateTime(IIf(IsNothing(Fields!DateValueField.Value) OR LTRIM(RTRIM(Fields!DateValueField.Value))="", Nothing,Fields!DateValueField.Value), DateFormat.ShortDate))

There may be other situations that the same issue may occur while using IIF expressions.

SSIS Script Component to Trim data in all the columns...

There are situations that we may have large number of input columns and we may need to Trim the data in those. Normally we can use Derived Column component to get done this, but in this scenario it is very difficult due to the large number of columns.
In such scenario it is easy to use Script Component and it can be configured to trim data for any number of input columns.

Solution is as below.

We can have a Script Component to trim data and there are some steps to follow.
We need to select on the required input columns and change the Usage Type of those columns to ReadWrite as below image.

Then click on Edit Script and follow the below steps to add the required code in C#
Add the using System.Reflection; namespace
Then modify the Input0_ProcessInputRow method as below
 public override void Input0_ProcessInputRow(Input0Buffer Row)
    {
        /*
         * Add your code here
         */
        foreach (PropertyInfo p in Row.GetType().GetProperties())
        {
         
           if (object.ReferenceEquals(p.PropertyType, typeof(string)))
            {
                if (p.GetValue(Row, null) != null)
                {
                    p.SetValue(Row, TrimData(p.GetValue(Row, null).ToString()), null);
                }
            }
        }
    }

The TrimData method is below
 public string TrimData(string ValueOfProperty)
    {
        // Uppercase the value
        ValueOfProperty = ValueOfProperty.TrimStart().TrimEnd();
        return ValueOfProperty;
    }


The complete code after those modifications is as below

#region Namespaces
using System;
using System.Data;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Pipeline.Wrapper;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime.Wrapper;
using System.Reflection;
#endregion

///

/// This is the class to which to add your code.  Do not change the name, attributes, or parent
/// of this class.
///

[Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Pipeline.SSISScriptComponentEntryPointAttribute]
public class ScriptMain : UserComponent
{
    ///

    /// This method is called once, before rows begin to be processed in the data flow.
    ///
    /// You can remove this method if you don't need to do anything here.
    ///
    public override void PreExecute()
    {
        base.PreExecute();
        /*
         * Add your code here
         */
     
    }

    ///

    /// This method is called after all the rows have passed through this component.
    ///
    /// You can delete this method if you don't need to do anything here.
    ///
    public override void PostExecute()
    {
        base.PostExecute();
        /*
         * Add your code here
         */
    }

    ///

    /// This method is called once for every row that passes through the component from Input0.
    ///
    /// The row that is currently passing through the component
    public override void Input0_ProcessInputRow(Input0Buffer Row)
    {
        /*
         * Add your code here
         */
        foreach (PropertyInfo p in Row.GetType().GetProperties())
        {
         
            if (object.ReferenceEquals(p.PropertyType, typeof(string)))
            {
                if (p.GetValue(Row, null) != null)
                {
                    p.SetValue(Row, TrimData(p.GetValue(Row, null).ToString()), null);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // New function that you can adjust to suit your needs
    public string TrimData(string ValueOfProperty)
    {
        // Uppercase the value
        ValueOfProperty = ValueOfProperty.TrimStart().TrimEnd();
        return ValueOfProperty;
    }
}

After that Build the code, save and close it. Then connect the Script Component with the Output source.

This can be used for any number of columns and it will loop though the available input columns and trim the data on those.

SSAS Single Role - Multiple Dimensions Issue...

In my previous post, I explained how to provide access using multiple roles for different dimensions.
Also I faced issues while providing access for multiple dimensions using a single role.

Let assume a scenario that we only need to provide the access for a Sales Manager, only for his Current Region. But Region of the Sales Manager may be changed and he should be able to see the relevant data for the Region for the period he assigned for that Region.

As I explained in my previous post, we need to maintain a mapping table for this requirement as well. Lets assume the name of the mapping table is SECURITY_MANAGER_REGION and the columns will be SalesManagerId, RegionId and MonthId. In this scenario I assumed sales manager is assigned for a particular region, at least for a period of Month.

Then we need to have the SECURITY_MANAGER_REGION table data in a fact table and can grant the access for the Region and Month dimensions based on it with in the same role.

But the issue is since those are two different dimension, security is applied separately and it is causing the issue.

To overcome that what I have done was, add a composite key using RegionId and MonthId  values to the SECURITY_MANAGER_REGION table.
Based on that table created a new dimension as DIM_SECURITY_MANAGER_REGION which uses the Key as the composite keys of RegionId and MonthId.

Then the Security is applied for the DIM_SECURITY_MANAGER_REGION dimension and the same dimension is linked with the measure groups using the RegionId and MonthId values.

That is it!