Sequence Numbers in Logical Level - OBIEE 12C

Question

Hi ! Consider a typical Time hierarchy that comes up with a Time dimension in OBIEE 12c.

Now I have few questions to ask regarding Sequence Numbers Feature in Logical level.

1- At how many levels is it enough to define a Sequence Number ?  ( Years/Quarter/Month - enough ? )  ( All - ?)

2- For a Year column - I have an integer column - 1991 1992 1993

But for month and quarter, I do not have any.

So should I require to create an additional column in Time dimension table such as MonthNo ( 1,2,...12) and QuarterNo(1,2,3,4) ?

Does this mean additional ETL/Database work ?

3- Do you really suggest to create such new columns and make use of this new features ?

What if I do not have Time Series functions in my application ?

Can you please also throw some light on whatever you know or have experience on this new feature ?

Thank you.

Regards

AM

User_E9OMM · Answer

Hi Gianni Ceresa & Christian Berg,

Your inputs and the weblink that you have provided are extremely helpful.

I am going to read it out and implement it in our system.

Again, Thank you so much !

Regards AM

Gianni Ceresa · Answer

Christian already gave you the links, read that and you find answers to all your questions

1) depends on your needs, from none to all, nothing mandatory

2) for year if no gaps you can use it, for others of course you will be required to create extra columns

3) the impact is fairly limited in a normal situation

If you don't use time series for now I would say you can skip it, the day you have time series you will anyway need to first analyze the queries to see if the part replaced by the usage of sequence numbers is really the one making the difference (I would say the slow part is somewhere else most of the time).

[Deleted User] · Answer

https://gianniceresa.com/2017/01/sequence-numbers-time-dimensions-new-obiee-12c/

https://www.rittmanmead.com/blog/2017/02/obiee-12c-time-dimension-logical-sequence-number/

tl;dr - it's totally optional