What is a Dimension?

Dimensions organize the data in relation to an area of interest. Dimensions can be things like customers, stores, or geographies, and they are usually hierarchical in nature.

Different OLAP cube systems see dimensions differently. Some systems see dimensions as a container for related area of interests (for example, where the Customer dimension contains Occupation and Gender hierarchies), whereas other systems see dimensions as hierarchies. For systems that see dimensions as hierarchical, each dimension implicitly becomes a hierarchy.

In Spotfire, dimensions cannot be put in a visualization. They are a way to organize related data and can be seen in the Data in analysis flyout and in the Views in Connection dialog, as a means of finding relevant data. Instead, it is the hierarchies that are used on axes in Spotfire visualizations.

SAP BW distinguishes between 'Key Figures' and 'Characteristics'. Key figures become measures in Spotfire, and all characteristics will be found in the 'Characteristics' dimension.

In Oracle Essbase, all dimensions are hierarchical in nature. In Spotfire, the Essbase dimensions are all shown as hierarchies.