3/17/2015

Kishore'sCognosClassRoom:CognosFMInterviewQuestionsandAnswers
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Thursday,March21,2013

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CognosFMInterviewQuestionsandAnswers

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CognosFMInterview
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FrameworkManagerQuestions
1.WhatisLoopinFM
LoopisabottleneckinFMandweshouldavoiditusingAliasorshortcut.
Loop:loopisaclosedpath(relation)thatexistsamong3(or)moretables.Forexample,ifwehave'3'
tablesT1,T2,T3then,aloopexistsamongthesetablesonlywhenwecreatejoinsinthefollowing
fashion:
Loop:T1>T2>T3>T1
Toresolvetheaboveproblem,wehavetocreateashortcut(or)AliastotheTableT1.
NoLoop:T1>T2>T3>Alias(or)ShortcutofT1
2.Determinants
DeterminantsareafeatureofCognos8designedtoprovidecontrolovergranularity.Determinants
areusedtoavoiddoublecounting.Determinantsaremostcloselyrelatedtotheconceptofkeysand
indexesinthedatabase.Thereisnoconceptofhierarchyindeterminants,althoughtheorderinwhich
theyarespecifieddoesgoverntheorderinwhichtheyareevaluated.

WhendoIneedtouseDeterminants?Joinsatmultiplelevelsofgranularityonasingle
querysubject
AclassicexampleofthisistheTimedimensioninGoDataWarehouse.Thereare
joinstothe
Timedimensiononthedaykeyandonthemonthkey.
Thisismainlyanissuewhendoingmultifactqueryingandyouneedtopreventdoublecounting.
Example1:TimeDimension(Uniqueforeignkeys)

YearKey MonthKey MonthName DayKey DayName

2005
200501
Jan05
20050101 Sunday,Jan1,2005
2005
200502
Jan05
20050102 Monday,Jan2,2005
Itispossibletodefinethreedeterminantsforthisdataset,twononuniquedeterminants(Yearand
Month)andoneuniquedeterminant(Day).

Interpretation:

Daykeyistheuniquekeyofthetablethereforeyoucanassociateallthecolumns
inthetabletothiskey.Becauseitisauniquekey,wechecktheUniquely
IdentifiedboxanddonotchecktheGroupBy.GroupByisapropertythatwedo
notneedwhendataisunique.
Monthkeyisalsoakeybutisnotunique,sotheUniquelyIdentifiedboxisnot
checkedforthisdeterminant.However,theMonthKeyisallthatisneededto
identifyamonthinthedata.Ifyouwantedtoquerymonthfromthistimetable
youwouldwriteaquerythatusedselectdistinctsyntaxandgroupedbyMonthkey
sincethevaluesarerepeated,thisiswhywechecktheGroupBybox.
SimilarlogicappliedtotheYeardeterminant.
3.StarandSnowFlakeschema
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StarSchema:Ithassinglefacttableconnectedtodimensiontableslikeastar.In
starschemaonlyonejoinestablishestherelationshipbetweenthefacttableand
anyoneofthedimensiontables.Astarschemahasonefacttableandis
associatedwithnumerousdimensionstableanddepictsastar.
SnowflakeSchema:Itisanextensionofthestarschema.Insnowflakeschema,
verylargedimensiontablesarenormalizedintomultipletables.Itisusedwhena
dimensionaltablebecomesverybig.Insnowflakeschemasincethereis
relationshipbetweenthedimensionsTablesithastodomanyjoinstofetchthe
data.Everydimensiontableisassociatedwithsubdimensiontable.
Themaindifferencebetweenstarschemaandsnowflakeschemaisthatthestar
schemaishighlydenormalizedandthesnowflakeschemaisnormalized.Sothe
dataaccesslatencyislessinstarschemaincomparisontosnowflakeschema.As
thestarschemaisdenormalized,thesizeofthedatawarehousewillbelargerthan
thatofsnowflakeschema.
Performancewise,starschemaisgood.Butifmemoryutilizationisamajor
concern,thensnowflakeschemaisbetterthanstarschema.
Adimensiontablewillnothaveparenttableinstarschema,whereassnowflake
schemashaveoneormoreparenttables.
Thedimensionaltableitselfconsistsofhierarchiesofdimensionsinstarschema,
whereashierarchiesaresplitintodifferenttablesinsnowflakeschema.Thedrilling
downdatafromtopmosthierarchiestothelowermosthierarchiescanbedone.
4.NormalizationandDeNormalization

Normalizationistheprocessofreducingdataredundancyandmaintainsdata
integrity.Thisisperformedbycreatingrelationshipsamongtablesthroughprimary
andforeignkeys.Normalizationprocedureincludes1NF,2NF,3NF,BCNF,andthen
thedataisnormalized.
Denomalizationonthecontraryistheprocessofaddingredundantdatatospeed
upcomplexqueriesinvolvingmultipletableJOINS.Onemightjustgotoalower
formofNormalizationtoachieveDenormalizationandbetterperformance.Datais
includedinonetablefromanotherinordertoeliminatethesecondtablewhich
reducesthenumberofJOINSinaqueryandthusachievesperformance.

Stepsofnormalization:
FirstNormalform
Entitiesofthetablemusthaveuniqueidentifierorentitykey.
SecondNormalForm
Alltheattributesofthetablemustdependontheentitykeyforthatentity.
ThirdNormalForm
Allattributesthatarenotpartofthekeymustnotdependonanyothernonkey
attributes.
5.Governorsettings.
Governorssettingisusedtoreducesystemresourcerequirementsandimproveperformance.Youset
governorsbeforeyoucreatepackagestoensurethemetadatainthepackagecontainsthespecified
limits.Allpackagesthataresubsequentlypublishedwillusethenewsettings.
Thereareanumberofgovernorsthatyoucanset.Governorsettingsinthemodelcanbe
overriddenbygovernorsettingsinReportStudio.
1.ReportTableLimits
YoucancontrolthenumberoftablesthatausercanRetrieveinaqueryorreport
2.DataRetrievalLimits
Youcancontrolthenumberofrowsthatarereturnedinaqueryorreport
3.QueryExecutionTimeLimits
Youcanlimitthetimethataquerycantake
4.LargeTextItemsLimit
YoucancontrolthecharacterlengthofBLOBS(binarylargeObjects)thatausercanretrieveina
queryorreport
5.AllowEnhancedModelPortabilityatRunTime
Youcanuseaseparatebutstructurallysimilardatasourceatruntime.Thedatabaseschemamustbe

thesamebetweenthetwodatasources.
6.AllowUsageofLocalCacheSelectthisgovernortospecifythatallreportsbasedon
thismodelshouldusecacheddata.
7.OuterJoins
Youcancontrolwhetherouterjoinscanbeusedinyourqueryorreport.
8.CrossProductJoins
Youcancontrolwhethercrossproductjoinscanbeusedinyourqueryorreport.
9.UseWithClauseWhenGeneratingSQL

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YoucanchoosetousetheWithclausewithCognosSQLifyourdatasourcesupportstheWith
clause.
8.StarSchemagroupings

Whenyoucreateastargrouping,anewnamespaceisautomaticallycreatedfory
ouandallthe
dimensionsinthatnamespacesareshortcutstotheoriginaldimensions.
Thiswayyoucanhaveadimensionwithallitscalculateditems,etc.anduseitin
manydifferentstar
groupings.Thatisthewholepurposeistohaveconformeddimensionsbeingused
withmultiplefacts.
9.Alias&Shortcut

Aliascannotberefreshedwhenbasequeryupdated,butshortcutwillberefreshe
d.
Ashortcutisapointertoanotherentrysuchasareport,reportview,folder,job,agent,page,or
URL.Youcanuseshortcutstoorganizeinformationthatyouuseregularly.Forexample,ifyou
frequentlyuseareportinPublicFolders,youcancreateashortcutinMyFolders.
Alternatively,youcouldcreateshortcutsasthealiasestothe
datasourcequerysubjectandcreateyourrelationshipstotheshortcuts.Tocreateanaliasshortcut,
rightclickonthequerysubjectitwillreferenceandchooseCreateAliasShortcutfromthecontext
menu.
ashortcutisalwaysapointertoanotherobjecttowhichourshortcutpointsto.
Butincontrast,anAlias(shortcut)isasecondcopyoftheoriginalobjectand,sincethisisajustcopy
andnottheactualobject,anychangemadeintheoriginalobjectisnotreflectedinthisone.
10.StitchedQuery
Whenwehavemultifactsobjectsinvolvedinourreport,Cognoswillgeneratetwoseparatequeries
witheachFacttableandcombinethemwithFULLOUTJOIN.ThesequeriesarecalledStitched
queries.

Ifyouaretryingtomodelafullouterjoininvolvingtwofacttablesrelatedthrough
acommon
Dimensiontable,notethatCognos8willhandlesuchsituationsusingastitchquer
y.

Aquerythatusesmultiplefactsfromdifferentunderlyingtablesissplitintosepara
tequeriesfor
eachunderlyingfacttable.Eachsinglefactqueryreferstoitsrespectivefacttable
aswellastothe
Dimensionaltablesrelatedtothatfacttable.Anotherqueryisusedtomergethese
individualqueries
intooneresultset.Thislatteroperationisgenerallyreferredtoasastitchedquery.
Youknowthat
youhaveastitchedquerywhenyouseecoalesceandafullouterjoin.

11.Cardinality
12.Security
Package
Object
Data
RowLevel
13.Parametermaps
14.Sessionparameters
15.WhatisDMRmodels.

16.Conformeddimensions

Confirmeddimensionsarethedimensionswhichcanbeusedinmultiplestarschema
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s.Thedimensions
whichisusedmorethanonefacttableiscalledconformeddimensions.thedimensio
nswhichareused
acrossmultipledatamartsarecalledasconformeddimensions.Dimesnsions,which
arereusable.
17.Multifactmultigrain

Multiplefact,multiplegrainqueriesinrelationaldatasourcesoccurwhenatablecont
ainingdimensional
dataisjoinedtomultiplefacttablesondifferentkeycolumns.

Adimensionalquerysubjecttypicallyhasdistinctgroups,orlevels,ofattributedataw
ithkeysthat
repeat.TheIBMCognosstudiosautomaticallyaggregatetothelowestcommonle
velofgranularity
presentinthereport.Thepotentialfordoublecountingariseswhencreatingtotalson
columnsthat
containrepeateddata.Whenthelevelofgranularityofthedataismodeledcorrectly,
doublecountingcan
beavoided.

Note:Youcanreportdataatalevelofgranularitybelowthelowestcommonlevel.Thi
scausesthedataof
highergranularitytorepeat,butthetotalswillnotbeaffectedifdeterminantsarecorre
ctlyapplied.

18.whatisdynamiccube?
19..Whatistheusagepropperity?

PostedbyKishore'sCognosClassroomat7:29AM

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5comments:
KumarN February27,2014at12:13PM
veryusefulinformation,good.
Thanks
Reply

StephenChang May9,2014at6:42AM
verygood.IhavetwootherFMquestions.
1.whatisdynamiccube?2.Whatistheusagepropperity?
Reply

aluri.santhosh December17,2014at10:45AM
thanksforusefulinfo....

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3/17/2015

Kishore'sCognosClassRoom:CognosFMInterviewQuestionsandAnswers
Reply

ArpithaRs February2,2015at10:58AM
Itwasveryusefulforme:)
Reply
Replies
Kishore'sCognosClassroom

March3,2015at8:32AM

Pleasepostifyouknoworlearnnewtechniques,thatwillbehelpfulforothers
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