You use the Define Time Periods page of the wizard to specify the range of dates that you want to include in the dimension. For example, you might select a range that starts on January 1 of the earliest year in your data and that ends one or two years beyond the current year (to allow for future transactions). Transactions that are outside the range either do not appear or appear as unknown members in the dimension, depending on the UnknownMemberVisible property setting for the dimension. You can also change the first day of the week used by your data (the default is Sunday).

Select the time periods to use when the wizard creates the hierarchies that apply to your data, such as Years, Half Years, Quarters, Trimesters, Months, Ten Days, Weeks, or Date. You must always select at least the Date time period. The Date attribute is the key attribute for the dimension, so the dimension cannot function without it.

Next to Language for time member names, select the language to be used to label the members of the dimension.

After you create a time dimension that is based on a range of dates, you can use Dimension Designer to add or remove time attributes. Because the Date attribute is the key attribute for the dimension, you cannot remove it from the dimension. To hide the Date attribute from users, you can change the AttributeHierarchyVisible property on the attribute to False.

The standard (Gregorian) 12-month calendar, starting on January 1 and ending on December 31, is always included when you create a time dimension. On the Select Calendars page of the wizard, you can specify additional calendars on which to base hierarchies in the dimension. For descriptions of the calendar types, see Time (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data).

Depending on which time periods you select on the Define Time Periods page of the wizard, the calendar selections determine attributes that are created in the dimension. For example, if you select the Year and Quarter time periods on the Define Time Periods page of the wizard and select Fiscal calendar on the Select Calendars page, the FiscalYear, FiscalQuarter, and FiscalQuarterOfYear attributes are created for the fiscal calendar.

The wizard also creates calendar-specific hierarchies that are composed of the attributes that are created for the calendar. For every calendar, each level in every hierarchy rolls up into the level above it. For example, in the standard 12-month calendar, the wizard creates a hierarchy of Years and Weeks or Years and Months. However, weeks are not contained evenly within months in a standard calendar, so there is no hierarchy of Years, Months, and Weeks. In contrast, weeks in a reporting or manufacturing calendar are evenly divided into months, so in these calendars weeks roll up into months.

On the Completing the Wizard page, review the attributes and hierarchies created by the wizard, and then name the time dimension. Click Finish to complete the wizard and create the dimension. After you complete the dimension, you can change it by using Dimension Designer.

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