TM1 Forum

The problem can be replicated as follows:
- Create a new dimension with a single element.

- Use DimensionElementInsert to insert two new N level elements.
This will give you three N level elements in the dimension.

- In a second process, use DimensionElementInsert to try to insert one of the existing elements as a C level element.

This will cause no change to the dimension, but nor will it cause an error or a reject. The lack of a reject / error when the element is OF THE SAME TYPE is a good thing. It means that TI will just ignore any existing elements if you need to loop through a data source, adding all of the elements from that source. The lack of a reject / error where the type DIFFERS is more questionable since it's most likely to be caused by a programming error by the TI developer or an error in the source data. However it's still harmless as it makes no change to the dimension.

- In a third process, use DimensionElementComponentAdd to add one of your N level elements as a child of one of the other N level elements.

This will cause the other N level element to be converted from an N type to a consolidation, blowing away any data that had been entered against it.

I believe that it would be more desirable for an attempt to do that to generate an error, and for either:
(a) The programmer to have to delete the N level element and recreate it as a C level element rather than having DimensionElementComponentAdd do an implicit conversion; or
(b) Create functions which have to be explicitly called to do a conversion.

At the very least, the documentation should be changed to warn users that they could lose data if they accidentally add an element as a child of another N level element.

Alan Kirk wrote: At the very least, the documentation should be changed to warn users that they could lose data if they accidentally add an element as a child of another N level element.

Martin Ryan wrote:

Alan Kirk wrote: At the very least, the documentation should be changed to warn users that they could lose data if they accidentally add an element as a child of another N level element.

This would be my preferred solution. I use this "feature" quite a lot, import all elements as "N" level, regardless of whether they will continue to be N level and then stick children against them, so I'd find an error very annoying. I guess an alternative function that returns an error in this situation would be a useful compromise, but I wouldn't want the DimensionElementComponentAdd to error out in this instance.

I have now heard back from engineering on this defect but they have not yet had a chance to review. The feedback was that this was a P4 and was not a priorty.