PARENT

Returns the name of a parent element for a specified element in a dimension.
Tip: This function is also available by its alias DE.PARENTNAME. See DE.PARENTNAME.

Syntax

PARENT(Dimension, Element, Index)

Parameters

This table describes the parameters of the PARENT function:

Parameter Type Description
Dimension String The name of the dimension that contains the element.
Element String The name of the element whose parent to retrieve. The value can be an element name or an element reference returned by another function, such as DE.FIRST, DE.NEXT, or ELEMENTINHIERARCHY.
Index Numeric The 1-based index of the parent to retrieve. An element can have multiple parents in a many-to-many hierarchy. Specify 1 for the first parent, 2 for the second parent, and so on.

Return values

The PARENT function returns a string that contains the name of the parent element.

The function returns an empty string in these cases:

  • The Index value is less than 1.
  • The element has fewer parents than specified by Index.
  • The dimension doesn't exist.
  • The specified element doesn't exist in the dimension.

Usage notes

  • This function is available under the DE.PARENTNAME alias. Both names are interchangeable and behave identically.
  • In a simple hierarchy, where each element has a single parent, use Index = 1.
  • In many-to-many hierarchies, an element can have multiple parents. The Index parameter determines which parent is returned based on the internal storage order of the parent relationships.
  • Use DE.PARENTSCOUNT(Dimension, Element) to determine the number of parent elements before iterating.
  • The result preserves the hierarchy context of the specified element. You can use the returned value directly as an element parameter in other functions, such as DB, PARENT (to get grandparents), or DE.LEVEL.
  • If the specified dimension cannot be found or loaded, the function returns an empty string without raising an error.

Examples

Example 1

PARENT("Time", "Jan 2024", 1)

Returns the parent of Jan 2024 in the Time dimension, for example, Q1 2024.

Example 2

PARENT("Organization", "Sales Team A", 2)

Returns the second parent of Sales Team A. This is useful in many-to-many hierarchies where an element belongs to multiple consolidated elements.

Example 3

DB("Revenue", PARENT("Time", "Jan 2024", 1), "Actual")

Retrieves a value from the Revenue cube by using the parent of the current time element.