Typically time dimension differs from all other dimensions in one way and that is,
All other dimensions doesn't care about the order of the values in it.
e.g. in region_dim the values are north, south, west and east. Here nobody wants to see whether north comes first or south comes first. i.e. no order is required here.
In the case of time dimension there needs to be a particular order for all the values present in it.
e.g. 2010 is earliest and 2004 is older. Dec-10 is earliest and jan-10 is older. i.e. the values in the time dimension needs to follow a particular sorting order. So the chronological key is the key which tells the obiee that the data is incrementing based on the chronological column.
For defining a dimension to be a Time dimension, we need to have a chronological Key.
All other dimensions doesn't care about the order of the values in it.
e.g. in region_dim the values are north, south, west and east. Here nobody wants to see whether north comes first or south comes first. i.e. no order is required here.
In the case of time dimension there needs to be a particular order for all the values present in it.
e.g. 2010 is earliest and 2004 is older. Dec-10 is earliest and jan-10 is older. i.e. the values in the time dimension needs to follow a particular sorting order. So the chronological key is the key which tells the obiee that the data is incrementing based on the chronological column.
For defining a dimension to be a Time dimension, we need to have a chronological Key.
Very useful explanation. Thanks a lot :)
ReplyDeleteAs the chronological level is present in every level of time dimension except the grant total;so at which level we should set the chronological level?
ReplyDeleteAnd
ex- the dimension is like(TOTAL-YEAR-QUARTER-MONTH-WEEK-DAY)
So if we set on YEAR level so whether it will work properly for the below level or we have to set the chronological key for each level.