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OBIEE11gHowtoResolveManytoManyRelationshipSolutions

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PravinKhadakkar

ItiscommontowanttomodelaManytoManyrelationshipbetweenDimensionsandFacts.Forexample,itmaybenecessaryto
seeallemployeesassociatedwithanopportunity,notjusttheprimary.Thisblogpresentsaseriesoftoolsandtechniquesthat
maybeappliedtosolveaparticularcase.Thisisjustanattempttosharethisvaluableinformationwhichhasbeenwrittenbyone
ofmycolleaguewhileworkingoncustomersite.

Technique#1:SelectaPrimary
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EnterpriseArchitect

Althoughnotatechnicalsolution,thebestwaytosolvetheM:Mproblemistoeliminateit.Byselectingoneofthemany
dimensionalrecordsthatareassociatedwithafact,theentireproblemcanbeavoided.IntheSiebelOLTP,Primariesareused
throughoutthemodel,whicharecarriedoverandusedintheAnalyticsmodel.Ifitisatallpossibletoidentifyaprimary,andthe
useoftheprimaryisacceptabletotheusercommunity,thenitisrecommendedtousethistechnique.

Technique#2:DirectModelingintotheDimension
AstraightforwardtechniquewherethetablethatservesastheintersectiontableismodeledintoalowerlevelintheDimension.
ThespecificsofthistechniquearesimilartothoseoutlinedinSolutionBoftheNodirectphysicallinkbetweenabaseDimension
andaFacttablesectionabove.
Notethatovercountingwilloccurwhenperformingthemanytomanyjoin.

Disclaimer
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hereareentirelymyown
anddonotreflectthe
positionofmyemployer,
Oracleoranyother
corporation.I'mnot
responsibleforany
damagesinwhateverform
causedbytheusageofthe
contentofthisblog.

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Technique#3a:UseofaBridgeTable
InsteadofmodelingtherelationshiptableintoanewlowerlevelinthedimensionasinTechnique#2,therelationshiptablecan
becomeaseparatelogicaltablethatserversastheBridgebetweenthedimensionandthefacts.CreateanewLogicaltablewith
theM:Mrelationshiptableasthesource,markthelogicaltableasaBridgetable,andadjusttheBusinessmodeltoshowthe
relationshipofFacts:Bridgeas1:MandBridge:DimensionasM:1.TheindicationthattheLogicalTableisaBridgetableismerely
anindicatortoAnalyticsthatthetableisnotaFacttable,whichitassumestobeanylowestleveltableinthedatamodel.

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Notethatovercountingwilloccurwhenperformingthemanytomanyjoin

OBIEE 11G

Technique#3b:UseaWeightedBridgeTable

EXALYTICS

SimilartoTechnique#3a,thistechniqueistheclassicKimballapproach,wheretheBridgetableemploysweightingfactorsto
prorateatotalvalueovermultiplerecords.Forexample,ifthereisoneOpportunityworth$1,000,000andtherearetwoEmployees
associatedwithit,thebridgetablemightcontainarecordforeachwithaweightingfactorof0.5.Inthisway,eachemployeewillbe
associatedwith0.5ofthewholeamountof$1,000,000,or$500,000.IfitisdeterminedthatEmployeeAshouldreceive75%ofthe
credit,thentheweightingfactorswouldbestoredas0.75and0.25,whichwouldgiveEmployeeA75ofthetotalor$750,000.

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Big Data Integration X34
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Itisimportanttonotethattheweightingfactorsmustalladdupto1(One),astheyareeffectivelypercentagesofawhole.

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6/1/2015
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believemost...
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SupportWebNotification
TheBusinessIntelligence
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11.1.1.6.6patchsethas
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availabletodownloadfrom
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ModelingOuterJoinfor
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BIDirect:OBIEE11gHowtoResolveManytoManyRelationshipSolutions

AdditionalETLeffortwillberequiredtocompletethissolution.
Thistechniqueeliminatesovercounting,butmaybedifficulttoimplementifusersarenotcomfortableproratingavalueover
severalrecords.

Technique#4:UseLevelBasedMeasures
AsanenhancementtoTechniques2and3,theuseoflevelbasedmeasurescanhelppreventtheovercountingproblem
associatedwitheach.Whenametricormeasureisexplicitlyboundtoaspecificlevelinadimension,itisindicatingthatthemetric
willbeviewedatthatlevel.IfthemetricsinafacttablearetobeviewedbyaDimensionwithwhichithasaM:Mrelationship,those
metricscanbesettoalevelinthedimension,therebyforcingthattherecordsbebrokenoutacrossthatdimension.Byforcinga
breakoutofrows(onefactrowforeachdimensionalrow),aggregationisprevented,andthereforeovercountingwillnotoccur.
Asanexample,supposethereisaM:MbetweenEmployeeandFact_Opty_Revenue.ThedatainthetablesindicatethatTom,
LarryandBillarealllinkedtoanOpportunityworth$9million.TheusermakesareportthatasksfortheOpportunityTypeandthe
totalPotentialOpportunityRevenue.Withoutlevelsettingthemetricsonthefacttable,areportthatdoesnotincludetheemployee
dimensionwillovercount,aseachofthethreedimrecordswillbebroughtintothequeryandaggregatedintoone:
OpportunityType

PotentialOpportunityRevenue

SoftwareSales

$27,000,000

BylevelsettingtheRevenuemetricstotheEmployeelevelintheEmployeeDimension,thissamereportwillreturnthefollowing:
OpportunityType

PotentialOpportunityRevenue

SoftwareSales

$9,000,000

SoftwareSales

$9,000,000

SoftwareSales

$9,000,000

Althoughnotintuitivelyobviousastothecauseofthebreakouttotheenduser,theovercountingscenarioisprevented.Whenthe
useraddstheEmployeetothereport,thebreakoutbecomesclearer:
OpportunityType

Employee

PotentialOpportunity
Revenue

SoftwareSales

Larry

$9,000,000

SoftwareSales

Tom

$9,000,000

SoftwareSales

Bill

$9,000,000

Technique#5:LowertheFactTable
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BIDirect:OBIEE11gHowtoResolveManytoManyRelationshipSolutions

Themostcomplicatedandinvolvedsolutionistolowerthelevelofthefacttable,andcreatea1:MbetweentheDimensionsand
theFacts.Thisinvolvesabusinessruletosplitupthemetricsandspreadthemoverallpossibledimensionalrecords.Inthe
exampleabove,thesimplestspreadwouldbetoassignLarry,TomandBilleach1/3ofthetotalamountof$9,000,000,or
$3,000,000.Thus,areportthatdoesnotbreakoutbyEmployeewillstilltotaltothecorrect$9,000,000.Notethatthiswould
requirethreerecordsinthefacttableinsteadofone,hencetheconceptofloweringthelevelofdetailinthefact.
Iwillleavefinalcalltochooseanappropriatetechniqueondesignerordeveloper.Theselectionshouldbebasedoncustomer
requirementasIunderstandtechnologydesignistosupportthecustomeraspiration.

PostedbyPravinKhadakkarat03:21

Recommend this on Google

2comments:
KashifM 17March2014at03:44
Nice
http://mkashu.blogspot.com
Reply

PaulaMaxwell 4June2014at10:58
IamusingOracle11gandIneedtoresolveamanytomanyrelationshipandIamhavingissues.Ihavea
modelforsurveydata.Myfacttableisatthesurveyquestionforeachpersonthatcompletedthesurvey.I
have benchmark data for a given question in the fact table. There can be 1000 possiblites of topbox
percentiles based on the percentile they want. I created a dim_percentile_grouping that has a one to
many relationship to my fact table. I then created a bridge table between the dim_percentile_grouping
tableandthepercentiletabletoresolvethemanytomanyrelationship.WhenIpublishthis,itworkswith
verysmallfilters,buttheminuteIstartbringinginfiltersfromtheotherdimtablesattachedtothefact
table,itwillnotreturnanyrecords.Doyouhaveanyideawhatcouldbecausingthis?
Reply

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