Cannot find dimension member - in a name-binding funct

[Jonathan Levine]

Sorry to repost about this, but I haven't seen any response from anyone.

I am seeing an interesting, inconsistant error in Analysis Services queries.

I have a MOLAP cube with a big dimension (about 6 million members). I have
the VLDMThreshold set to about 10 million on the server -- otherwise
processing the cube takes forever. The dimension is relatively flat, so I
have a hidden grouping level between the top level and the leaf level. The
leaf level has Unsigned Big Integer keys (the member key is the same as the
member name), and both member keys and member names are set to true.

After opening a connection to the cube, the first time I slice on the big
dimension, I get a "Formula error - cannot find dimension member - in a
name-binding function." If I execute the SAME query again with the
connection still open, the query succeeds. If I close the connection, reopen
it, and execute the query again, it fails again. This is true whether I make
the query via the MDX sample application or via a VB.Net object.

The problem doesn't happen when I make the keys Varchars. But when they are
Varchars, the dimension is larger, and so the server frequently runs out of
memory.

In my VB.Net, I'm working around the problem by manually opening the
connection to the cube, catching the Formula Error exception and running the
query again before closing the connection. But maybe I'm missing something?
Anyone seen this problem? Anyone gotten this to work without having to run
the same query twice?

[Deepak Puri]

Hi Jonathan,

This thread on the NG from Dec 2002 seems to describe the same problem -
and the lists of SP3 and SP4 beta bug fixes don't include a mention of
"Big Integer". Maybe [MS] folks could comment on whether this has been
confirmed as a bug?

Also, this thread suggests that the problem didn't occur when the key
was acutally in the Integer ( < 2B) range. Can you possibly map your key
(6 M members) accordingly?

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sqlserver.olap/msg/
bffbbe1a3d08816f?hl=en
>>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sqlserver.olap
From: j...@yahoo.com (Jerry)
Date: 19 Dec 2002 10:21:22 -0800

Subject: Re: BIG INT BUG ?

Igor, Im having the exact same problem as you.

1) Bigint dimensions creating 'cannot find dimension member in a name
binding function' error

2) only happens when the number is actually in the BIGINT range, if it
is still in the INT range, drilling down on the dimensions work

Has anyone talked to Microsoft yet about this?
>>

- Deepak

Deepak Puri
Microsoft MVP - SQL Server

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