Metric Column Aliases: SQL Identifiers and Data Types

A column alias changes the name of a metric in temporary tables, which are used in data marts and SQL generation. This renaming does not affect the actual name of the metric in the metadata but allows you to identify the metric easily, such as in a long SQL report. The column alias is set in the Metric Column Alias dialog box in the Metric Editor. To access it, select Tools, then Advanced Settings, and then Metric Column Options.

For more information on data marts, see Accessing Subsets of Data: Data Marts.

You can also set the data type and byte length for the metric. The MicroStrategy data types are Big Decimal, Binary, Char, Date, Decimal, Double, Float, Integer, LongVarBin, Long.VarChar, Numeric, Real, Time, Timestamp, Unsigned, VarBin, and VarChar.

There are several drawbacks to using the Big Decimal data type for metric values.

For more information on all data types, see the Data Types appendix in the Project Design Help.