Ignore processing errors in SSAS 2005 and 2008

When you start with a SSAS prototype or a proof of concept cube you seldom have the time to clean data in a comprehensive way. You want to show the customer a cube with their data and if it is not perfect that is not important in a prototype. In this simple example I will show how you temporarely can ignore dimension key errors like when you have a fact table record with a dimension key that is missing in the dimension table. This example will work both in SSAS 2005 and 2008. Remember that this is not a praxis recommended for production systems. Also check my blog entry about inferred members that shows how SSAS 2005 takes care of this problem in a better way in the long run.

 I will start with building one time dimension table and a fact table with the following script in SQL Server 2005 management studio.