Options

Generate Time Dimension has the following options.

Option Description

Start date

The first day of the date range for which to generate time dimension records.

End date

Select this option if you want to specify a specific end date for the time dimension. One record will be generated for each day between the start date and the date you specify here.

Duration

Select this option if you want the time dimension to span a certain number of days, months, or years. One record will be generated for each day of the duration. For example, if you specify one week, seven records will be generated, starting with the day you specified in the Start date field.

Time Attribute

Specifies the type of time information that you want to include in the time dimension. Each attribute will be a field in each day's record. One of the following:

Date
The day's date in the format <Date> <Month> <Year>, with the name of the month in the language of the server's locale setting. For example, if the server is running in an English locale, the date would read like this: 30 October 2012.
Day of Month
A number representing the day of the month. For example, 10 means the day is the 10th day of the month.
Day of Year
A number representing the day of the year. For example, 304 means that the day is the 304th day of the year.
Is Leap Year
A boolean value that indicates whether the day is in a leap year, in which case the value would be true, or not, in which case the value would be false.
Is Weekday
A boolean value that indicates whether the day is a weekday (Monday through Friday), in which case the value would be true, or not, in which case the value would be false.
Is Weekend
A boolean value that indicates whether the day is a weekend day (Saturday or Sunday), in which case the value would be true, or not, in which case the value would be false.
Julian Day
A unique number for the day. The Julian day system counts January 1, 4713 BC as day 1 and numbers all subsequent days sequentially since then. For example, 2456231 means that the day is the 2,456,231st day since January 1, 4713 BC.
Julian Week
A unique number for the day's week. The Julian system counts the first week of 4713 BC as week 1 and numbers all subsequent weeks sequentially since then. For example, 350890 means that the day is in the 350,890th week since the first week of 4713 BC.
Julian Year
A unique number for the year. The Julian system counts 4713 BC as year 1 and numbers all subsequent years sequentially since then. For example, 6725 means that the day is in the year 2012 AD.
Month Name
The name of the day's month in English.
Month Number
The number of the month of the year. For example, 3 means that the day is in the third month of the year.
Quarter
A number representing the quarter of the year. For example, 1 means that the day is in the first quarter of the year.
Week of Year
A number representing the week of the year. For example, 43 means that the day is in the 43rd week of the year.
Weekday Name
The name of the day in English. For example, Monday.
Weekday Number
A number representing the day of the week, with day 1 being Monday. So for example Tuesday is day 2, Wednesday is day 3, and so on.
Year
The day's year according to the Gregorian calendar. For example, 2012 means that the day is in the year 2012.

Field

The name of the field that will created in the dataflow to contain the time attribute. A default field name is provided but you can modify the field name.

Type

The data type of this field. Generate Time Dimension automatically chooses the appropriate data type for each time attribute.

Calendar

Specifies whether to use a custom calendar when calculating the time attribute or the default Gregorian calendar. To define a custom calendar, click Calendar.