If you ever see the warning message “This field is missing from the returned result set form the data source” and get unexplained #Errors in columns on your report it may be from SSAS not returning a column is the column is null for all the rows. You can use the IsMissing method of the field object and a vb function in your report to work around this problem.

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PowerPivot and DAX are a powerful technologies, but there is still a good amount of work that can be done with traditional cube functions. In its current version, PowerPivot lacks the concept of dimension hierarchies; however very customized Excel reports that leverage cube hierarchies can still be built using MDX enabled cube functions. This approach goes beyond the limiting nature of traditional pivot tables by enabling power users to transverse dimensions using custom formulas that are a mix of MDX with traditional Excel functionality.

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