Attribute Look Up

It is also possible to refer to a Dimension’s attributes (columns) in a rule. For example:

1. You may want to perform a calculation on any entities that have a Parent called Europe in the first consolidation path (hierarchy). Here the attribute is Parent1, and its value is Europe.
2. You may want a particular calculation to occur only for Consolidated entities. Here the attribute is Entity Type and its value is Consolidated.

It is possible to perform the above examples by referring to the attributes of members. The Entity dimension can includes the following attributes:

To refer to these attributes within a rule we use the carat symbol, ^. However, the way the value is nominated differs. There are two methods of referring to attributes within rules:

1. Attributes that refer to members of a dimension.
2. Attributes that refer to system defined properties.
   

Attributes that Refer to Members of a Dimension

Example One above required us to evaluate the parent of each entity. To perform this evaluation we can refer specifically to the Parent Name as follows:

If(Entity^Parent1==@Europe, Result if True, Result if False)

We are able to refer to @Europe by name (as text) because Europe is a member of the entity dimension. This makes the Rule easier to read. When you refer to an item by name, precede the name with the @ symbol. The same approach can be used for any attribute value that is a member of another dimension.

Attributes that Refer to System Defined Properties

If you are referring to an attribute item that is not a specific member of a dimension, you refer to the item by its index value (i.e. position), not by its name.

For example, you may want to perform a calculation on all Consolidated entities only. You might write the rule as follows:

If(Entity^Type==1, Result if True, Result if False)

*Cubix uses a zero base for index values so the first item in any list has the value zero, the second item has index value of 1 and so on. In the list of possible entity types, Input is the first item, value 0 and Consolidated is the second item, value 1.

Attribute rules must use the exact name of the relevant attribute. A list of all the available attributes, the name to use in the rule and the return values can be found here