The Dimensions Properties dialog involves the selectionof fields
(columns) and setting them as
dimensions ,
measures , and
time
dimensions.
Dimensions:
Fields that contain qualitative data such as Dates,
Customer Names, Gender, Products, Regions etc.
Set a field as dimension if you wish to filter it for its
members and use them inside your analysis.
Time Dimensions:
Date & Time stamp fields that are transformed into
time hierarchies.
Set a field as time dimension if you wish to analyze by
time as years, quarters, months, days etc., and perform
calculations that involve time hierarchies
(Growth, Difference, Rolling Sums etc.)
In addition, once you set a field as time dimension, you will
get additional
time aggregation dimensions that allow you
to analyze data by
Weekdays and
Month Names, a powerful
addition that gives you the ability to combine time
dimensions on the same widget.
Measures:
Fields that contain numerical values that should be
aggregated such as sales, cost, profit, # of products sold,
ship duration, scientific measurements, statistical
measurements etc.
Set a field as measure if you wish to aggregate it over
other dimensions.
More:
Connecting to CSV files
Connecting to SQL Server
