Strings in TM1

Post Reply
User avatar
George Regateiro
MVP
Posts: 326
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 3:35 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.1.1
Excel Version: 2007 SP3
Location: Tampa FL USA

Strings in TM1

Post by George Regateiro »

I have been encountering a odd situation and am not sure where to go from here.

Our users can enter in comments to print out on reports and these are stored within a cube as String elements. But recently certain values have begun to corrupt with garbage characters. So far the occurances seem to be constrained to strings pertaining to consolidations, at least from what i have seen.


Is there a size limit to strings that might be causing this? I saw in the docs that the API seems to have a limit of 255, but I could not see where TM1 had a limit outside of the API.

Any ideas on where to look next?
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Strings in TM1

Post by Alan Kirk »

George Regateiro wrote:I have been encountering a odd situation and am not sure where to go from here.

Our users can enter in comments to print out on reports and these are stored within a cube as String elements. But recently certain values have begun to corrupt with garbage characters. So far the occurances seem to be constrained to strings pertaining to consolidations, at least from what i have seen.


Is there a size limit to strings that might be causing this? I saw in the docs that the API seems to have a limit of 255, but I could not see where TM1 had a limit outside of the API.
That's always been a limit in TM1; in fact you can only store 254 in a cell in pre-9.4 versions. (The lower limit has to do with the null termination of "strings" in (for example) the C language.)

If you want strings longer than that, you need to go to 9.4. Indeed even 9.4 has limitations; as per the "New Features" guide you need to be usinmg Excel 2007 if you want to enter them via Perspectives because of limitations in the Excel API.

Can you provide more specifics about the corruption that's occurring? Is it only in long strings?

In pre-9.4 releases you can in fact enter strings longer than 254 characters into a cell in cube viewer and they'll appear to go in. However when you refresh the view, you'll find only the first 254 characters there. If that's the corruption that you're experiencing, I'm afraid that that's normal behaviour.

(As, it would seem, is crashing Excel in 8.2.12 when you try to view a cell which HAS 254 characters in it :evil: )
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
User avatar
George Regateiro
MVP
Posts: 326
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 3:35 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.1.1
Excel Version: 2007 SP3
Location: Tampa FL USA

Re: Strings in TM1

Post by George Regateiro »

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately I am just not experiencing a cut off, below is an example of the corruption that I am noticing.

Additi
ExternalÀ¬™+ð­™+ HHЙ+XX" Technical and Indirect Rate Risk rv+®™+H¯™+€¯™+诙+ phv+AGWST PROJECTILEB&P PÑ™+˜±™+8²™+x


There is only one entry point for this information and I have seen the users physically type it in and everything appeared to enter in fine and at some point after it was entered the corruption occurs. There is only one process that affects these cells and that is a TI that copies it to an archive cube, but from what we have seen the corruption is occuring before the archive.


BTW I am on 9.1 SP2.
User avatar
Alan Kirk
Site Admin
Posts: 6606
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 2:30 am
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: PA2.0.9.18 Classic NO PAW!
Excel Version: 2013 and Office 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Strings in TM1

Post by Alan Kirk »

George Regateiro wrote:Thanks for the response. Unfortunately I am just not experiencing a cut off, below is an example of the corruption that I am noticing.

Additi
ExternalÀ¬™+ð­™+ HHЙ+XX" Technical and Indirect Rate Risk rv+®™+H¯™+€¯™+诙+ phv+AGWST PROJECTILEB&P PÑ™+˜±™+8²™+x

There is only one entry point for this information
Yes, but what IS the entry point? A slice sheet? DBS's from an input sheet? Cube viewer? Web?

If I saw something like that (and it would be worth checking the log file to see whether that is indeed what gets entered into the cube immediately after the user types it in) I'd probably be inclined to look for language mismatches between the client environment and the server.
"To them, equipment failure is terrifying. To me, it’s 'Tuesday.' "
-----------
Before posting, please check the documentation, the FAQ, the Search function and FOR THE LOVE OF GLUB the Request Guidelines.
Malcolm MacDonnell
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 2:58 am

Re: Strings in TM1

Post by Malcolm MacDonnell »

Hi George,

I've seen this also. If the string is too long it doesn't necessarilly just cut it, it adds lots of garbage as shown. I also cut strings to less than 254 as there seems to be two implied quotation marks included in your limit, and occasionally other invisible characters get included in the string if people copy and paste part of the text from somewhere else.

Mal
User avatar
Eric
MVP
Posts: 373
Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 1:21 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 9.4
Excel Version: 2003
Location: Chicago, IL USA

Re: Strings in TM1

Post by Eric »

Just another comment for Noobs :? (remembering prior issues with newbie term and not caring )

Strings must be in your last dimension if you want them to work properly
Regards,
Eric
Blog: http://tm1-tipz.blogspot.com
Articles: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/use ... /label/TM1


Production: 32 bit 9.0 SP2, Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Web: 32 bit 9.0 SP2, Windows 2000 Server. Excel 2003
Post Reply