Multiple selection and Microsoft Analysis Services

Selecting multiple elements has specific effects on measures displayed in reports on Microsoft Analysis Services databases. To help your understanding of these effects, here first is an example of the default behavior with all database types:

You have a report in which a measure is used to display, as a percentage, the difference between budget and actual sales figures. If multiple elements are selected, their values are aggregated by default.

If Element A is selected, the difference between actual and budget is 32%.
If Element B is selected, the difference between actual and budget is 30%
If Elements A and B are selected, the difference between actual and budget is displayed as 31%.

However, there are situations in which you need to Sum the values of multiple elements rather than aggregate them. For example, where the selected elements have a mixture of positive and negative values. If Element A has a value of -154 and Element B has a value of 58 then the value when both elements are selected should be -96.

To ensure that such calculations are performed correctly on Microsoft Analysis Services databases, you must ensure that the values are summed rather than aggregated. This requires a change to your system registry.

Note: We recommend that you make a backup of your registry before making any changes to it.

To enable switching between Aggregate and Sum calculation of the values of multiple elements, specify AggregationMethod as a string value in this registry location:

LocalMachine\Software\MIS AG\Plain\<Version>\axlc\General\

On 64 bit operating systems, the registry location is:

LocalMachine\Software\Wow6432Node\MIS AG\Plain\<Version>\axlc\General

AggregationMethod accepts two values: Aggregate or Sum.

If AggregationMethod does not exist, or if no value is specified, Aggregation is used.

To ensure that the values of multiple elements are summed, specify Sum as the value of AggregationMethod.