Business Identifiers

A business identifier consists of a user-selected list of attributes. The business identifier must be unique across the level and is always derived from the natural key of the data source. The business identifier uniquely identifies the member. For example, the business identifier of a Product level can be its Universal Product Code (UPC), which is a unique code for each product.

Note:

For a dimension that has a MOLAP implementation, the business identifier can consist of only one attribute.

The business identifier does the following:

Identifies a record in business terms
Provides a logical link between the fact and the dimension or between two levels
Enables the lookup of a surrogate key

When you populate a child level in a dimension, you must specify the business identifier of its parent level. When you populate a cube, you must specify the business identifier of the dimension level to which the cube refers.