Chapter 43. Designing reports with custom MDX queries
On the Reporting Services forums, I see many report developers trying to build analytical reports with relational data sources, using complex and convoluted coding techniques. They might populate temporary tables, using inefficient and complicated subqueries to derive calculated values. OLAP cubes, queried with the Multidimensional Expression (MDX) query language, make this kind of reporting work easier to manage and the data much easier to query. For many, at first MDX seems strange and foreign, until arriving at a moment of clarity when the mechanics of the language begin to make practical sense.
