ADVICE: Using ID Dimensions w/ OLAP_TABLE

Question

Some advice from a consultant in the UK...
My discovery using AW dimensions with a datatype of ID with the OLAP_TABLE function - hopefully it will save you some time !!
I have the follow objects in an AW which I migrated from OES 6.3.2:
DEFINE DJ_DATE DIMENSION TEXT WIDTH 5
DEFINE DJ_BAND DIMENSION TEXT WIDTH 3
DEFINE DJ_INDUSTRY DIMENSION TEXT WIDTH 3
DEFINE DJ_GEOG DIMENSION TEXT WIDTH 2
DEFINE DJ_IDX_CURR DIMENSION ID
DEFINE DJ_INDEX_VAL VARIABLE DECIMAL <DJ_DATE DJ_BAND DJ_CMP_1 <DJ_INDUSTRY DJ_GEOG DJ_IDX_CURR>>
I create the following ADT's & Views:
CREATE TYPE DFR_DJINDEXVAL AS OBJECT (
dj_date DATE,
dj_band VARCHAR2(3),
dj_industry VARCHAR2(3),
dj_geog VARCHAR2(2),
dj_idx_curr VARCHAR2(3),
dj_index_val NUMBER);
CREATE TYPE DFT_DJINDEXVAL AS TABLE OF DFR_DJINDEXVAL;
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT AS SELECT * FROM TABLE (CAST (OLAP_TABLE (
'DJ duration session',
'DFT_DJINDEXVAL',
'DIMENSION dj_date FROM dj_date
DIMENSION dj_band FROM dj_band
DIMENSION dj_industry FROM dj_industry
DIMENSION dj_geog FROM dj_geog
DIMENSION dj_idx_curr FROM dj_idx_curr
MEASURE dj_index_val FROM dj_index_val
LOOP dj_cmp_1
AS DFT_DJINDEXVAL));
I get an error when I issue the following query:
select * from DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT
where dj_date = '06JUN00'
and dj_industry = 'DOW'
and dj_geog = 'W1'
and dj_band = 'ALL'
and dj_idx_curr = 'USD';
select * from DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
ORA-01401: inserted value too large for column
WARNING 1) Despite having no values which exceed 3 characters in length, the dj_idx_curr AW dimension has been defined with datatype ID and therefore 8 characters will be inserted, regardless of content.
The way round this is to change the column defintion in the ADT.
CREATE TYPE DFR_DJINDEXVAL AS OBJECT (
dj_date DATE,
dj_band VARCHAR2(3),
dj_industry VARCHAR2(3),
dj_geog VARCHAR2(2),
dj_idx_curr VARCHAR2(8),
dj_index_val NUMBER);
I can now select against the view without error, but I still don't get the result I expect:
SQL> select * from DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT
2 where dj_date = '06JUN00'
3 and dj_industry = 'DOW'
4 and dj_geog = 'W1'
5 and dj_band = 'ALL'
6 and dj_idx_curr = 'USD';
no rows selected
WARNING 2) ID dimension values will be padded out with blank characters to make them up to a width of 8 characters.
The following query gives me what I want:
SQL> select * from DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT
2 where dj_date = '06JUN00'
3 and dj_industry = 'DOW'
4 and dj_geog = 'W1'
5 and dj_band = 'ALL'
6 and dj_idx_curr = 'USD ';
DJ_DATE DJ_ DJ_ DJ DJ_IDX_C DJ_INDEX_VAL
06JUN00 ALL DOW W1 USD 238.563007
06JUN00 LRG DOW W1 USD 261.824481
06JUN00 MID DOW W1 USD 200.667549
06JUN00 SML DOW W1 USD 183.01086
06JUN00 TOP DOW W1 USD
06JUN00 LOW DOW W1 USD
6 rows selected.
This is obviously not ideal. A possible solution is to define another view and query this instead:
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW DFV_DJINDEXVAL AS SELECT
dj_date,
dj_band,
dj_industry,
dj_geog,
rtrim(dj_idx_curr) dj_idx_curr,
dj_index_val
FROM DFV_DJINDEXVAL_OT;
The following query gives me what I want:
SQL> select * from DFV_DJINDEXVAL
2 where dj_date = '06JUN00'
3 and dj_industry = 'DOW'
4 and dj_geog = 'W1'
5 and dj_band = 'ALL'
6 and dj_idx_curr = 'USD';
DJ_DATE DJ_ DJ_ DJ DJ_IDX_C DJ_INDEX_VAL
06JUN00 ALL DOW W1 USD 238.563007
06JUN00 LRG DOW W1 USD 261.824481
06JUN00 MID DOW W1 USD 200.667549
06JUN00 SML DOW W1 USD 183.01086
06JUN00 TOP DOW W1 USD
06JUN00 LOW DOW W1 USD
6 rows selected.
Hope it helps.
Stuart

Answer 1

ADT objects were mandatory in 9.2 but are optional in 10.x
As you are using 10.2, you should use automatic ADT's as shown here
Stuart