Specifying the Contents of a Slicer Axis (MDX)

The slicer axis filters the data returned by the Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) SELECT statement, restricting the returned data so that only data intersecting with the specified members will be returned. The slicer axis is defined in the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement in MDX.

Slicer Axis Syntax

To explicitly specify a slicer axis, you using the <SELECT slicer axis clause> in MDX, as described in the following syntax:

<SELECT slicer axis clause> ::=  WHERE Set_Expression

In the slicer axis syntax shown, Set_Expression can take either a tuple expression, which is treated as a set for the purposes of evaluating the clause, or a set expression. If a set expression is specified, MDX will try to evaluate the set, aggregating the result cells in every tuple along the set. In other words, MDX will try to use the Aggregate function on the set, aggregating each measure by its associated aggregation function. Also, if the set expression cannot be expressed as a crossjoin of attribute hierarchy members, MDX treats cells that fall outside of the set expression for the slicer as null for evaluation purposes.

Implicit Slicer Axis

If a member from a hierarchy within the cube is not explicitly included in a query axis, the default member from that hierarchy is implicitly included in the slicer axis. For more information about default members, see Defining a Default Member.