Shortcodes in Essbase – Surprises in Essbase Part XII 3


When I was writing this post, (wow that was 4 years back) I did see some surprising (weird) happening. I had a theory that time and I thought of exploring that theory as I made the mistake of typing something wrong and Essbase didn’t judge me ;), it considered that as a shortcode and was okay with it.

My theory at that time was all member return functions, which accepts a member name as a parameter can work if you can provide at least 4 letters of the function.

This is the reason why @DESC works (there is no such function in Essbase, it is short for @DESCENDANTS). Was my theory wrong, oh yes it was.

  1. Assumption that member return function, which accepts a member name as parameter
  2. 4 letter of the function (keeping in mind DESC specifically

This is by far the wackiest post that I’ve ever written.

What if I tell you that the below-given script works.

[Sun Mar 19 20:42:43 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/38040/Info(1012668)
Calculating [ Measures(Sales)] with fixed members [Period(Jan); Product(100-10); Market(California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, West); Scenario(Budget)]

[Sun Mar 19 20:42:43 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/38040/Info(1012672)
Calculator Information Message:

Maximum Number of Lock Blocks: [100] Blocks
Completion Notice Messages: [Disabled]
Calculations On Updated Blocks Only: [Enabled]
Clear Update Status After Full Calculations: [Enabled]
Calculator Cache: [Disabled]

[Sun Mar 19 20:42:43 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/38040/Info(1012677)
Calculating in serial

Or for that matter this!!!


[Sun Mar 19 20:45:58 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/21220/Info(1012668)
Calculating [ Measures(Sales)] with fixed members [Period(Jan); Product(100-10); Market(East, Market); Scenario(Budget)]

[Sun Mar 19 20:45:58 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/21220/Info(1012672)
Calculator Information Message:

Maximum Number of Lock Blocks: [100] Blocks
Completion Notice Messages: [Disabled]
Calculations On Updated Blocks Only: [Enabled]
Clear Update Status After Full Calculations: [Enabled]
Calculator Cache: [Disabled]

[Sun Mar 19 20:45:58 2017]Local/Sample/Basic/admin@Native Directory/21220/Info(1012677)
Calculating in serial

So I was wrong about 4 letter (It varies), also about function returning members. There is no shortcode for @MBRPARENT.

In case anyone is trying to reduce the code, below given are the functions that work fine (tested in 11.1.2.4.014)

  • @DES – @DESCENDANTS
  • @CHI – @CHILDREN
  • @ANC – @ANCESTORS
  • @ALLANC – @ALLANCESTORS
  • @RSI – @RSIBLINGS
  • @LSI – @LSIBLINGS
  • @SIB – @SIBLINGS
  • @IDES
  • @ICHI
  • @IANC
  • @IALLANC
  • @IRSI
  • @ILSI
  • @ISIB

Well, that was crazy 🙂

Update 03/22/2017

This is purely an experimental post. I’m not encouraging anyone to change the code to use the above-given functions.(and make it non-readable).


About Celvin Kattookaran

I’m an EPM Consultant, my primary focus is on Hyperion Planning and Essbase. Some of you from Hyperion Support team might recognize me or have seen my support articles, I was with the WebAnalysis Support Team. I'm an Independent Consultant with “Intekgrate Corporation” based out of Aurora office. I’m from God’s Own Country (Kerala, India), lived in all southern states of India, Istanbul and Johannesburg (and of course United States). I’m core gamer :) and an avid reader. I was awarded Oracle ACE Director for my contributions towards EPM community.

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