Measure Groups

A measure group is the same concept as a fact in data warehouse terminology. Just as facts contain numeric measures in a data warehouse, a measure group contains measures for an OLAP cube. All the measures in an OLAP cube that derive from a single fact table in a data source view also can be considered to be a measure group. 

There can be instances, however, in which there will be multiple fact tables from which the measures in an OLAP cube derive. Measures of the same detail level are united in one measure group. Measure groups define what data will be loaded into the system, how the data is loaded, and how the data is bound to the multidimensional cube.

Each measure group also contains a list of partitions, which hold the actual data in separate, non overlapping sections. Measure groups also contain aggregation design, which defines the presummarized data sets that are calculated for each measure group to improve the performance of user queries.

A measure group is the same concept as a fact in data warehouse terminology. Just as facts contain numeric measures in a data warehouse, a measure group contains measures for an OLAP cube. All the measures in an OLAP cube that derive from a single fact table in a data source view also can be considered to be a measure group.

There can be instances, however, in which there will be multiple fact tables from which the measures in an OLAP cube derive. Measures of the same detail level are united in one measure group. Measure groups define what data will be loaded into the system, how the data is loaded, and how the data is bound to the multidimensional cube.