AutoExist and Normalization

The autoexist feature used by MDX queries sent to an Analysis Services or Power Pivot data models can have different behaviors depending on the normalization level. This article describes these differences and provides best practices to avoid unwanted results. Auto-exist is the feature of SSAS that shows, in the result of queries, only existing combinations of attributes. If, for example, you do not sell any blue shirt, you would not expect the combination of blue and shirt to appear in any of your PivotTables, even if you sell blue bikes and white shirts. Color and product category are on different columns, but auto-exist takes care of this, ensuring that the result of a query contains only existing combinations of attributes.