Long Integer Support

Long integer support is an advanced property that is hidden by default. For information on how to display this property, see Viewing and Changing Advanced VLDB Properties.

With this VLDB property you can determine whether long integers are mapped to a BigInt data type when MicroStrategy creates tables in the database. A data mart is an example of a MicroStrategy feature that requires MicroStrategy to create tables in a database.

When long integers from databases are integrated into MicroStrategy, the Big Decimal data type is used to define the data in MicroStrategy. Long integers can be of various database data types such as Number, Decimal, and BigInt.

In the case of BigInt, when data that uses the BigInt data type is integrated into MicroStrategy as a Big Decimal, this can cause a data type mismatch when MicroStrategy creates a table in the database. MicroStrategy does not use the BigInt data type by default when creating tables. This can cause a data type mismatch between the originating database table that contained the BigInt and the database table created by MicroStrategy.

You can use the following VLDB settings to support BigInt data types:

• Do not use BigInt (default): Long integers are not mapped as BigInt data types when MicroStrategy creates tables in the database. This is the default behavior.

  If you use BigInt data types, this can cause a data type mismatch between the originating database table that contained the BigInt and the database table created by MicroStrategy.

• Up to 18 digits: Long integers that have up to 18 digits are converted into BigInt data types.

  This setting is a good option if you can ensure that your BigInt data uses no more than 18 digits. The maximum number of digits that a BigInt can use is 19. With this option, if your database contains BigInt data that uses all 19 digits, it is not mapped as a BigInt data type when MicroStrategy creates a table in the database.

  However, using this setting requires you to manually modify the column data type mapped to your BigInt data. You can achieve this by creating a column alias for the column of data in the Attribute Editor or Fact Editor in MicroStrategy. The column alias must have a data type of Big Decimal, a precision of 18, and a scale of zero. For steps to create a column alias to modify a column data type, see the Project Design Help.

• Up to 19 digits: Long integers that have up to 19 digits are converted into BigInt data types.

  Using this option enables BigInt data that uses up to 19 digits to be correctly mapped as a BigInt data types when MicroStrategy creates tables in the database. This option does not require you to create a column alias.

  However, this option can cause an overflow error if you have long integers that use exactly 19 digits, and its value is greater than the maximum allowed for a BigInt (9,223,372,036,854,775,807).

Levels at Which You Can Set This

Database instance, report, and template