Intro To MDX Decathlon-PARALLELPERIOD() Function

Like the LEAD() and LAG() functions we looked at in the previous post, the PARALLELPERIOD() function is also useful for travelling through ordered hierarchies. However, there is one really important difference. While LEAD() and LAG() use the hierarchy level of the member passed to the function to determine the hierarchy level to be traversed, the PARALLELPERIOD() function lets you specify the level as an argument. Because of this, the hierarchy level traversed can be different from the level of the member passed and the resulting member. This can be a bit confusing at first. The examples will help, though.