Deleting Cubes and Cube Objects

While working in SAS OLAP Cube Studio, you can delete a cube. The Delete function deletes the cube metadata definition and the cube's physical files. If you are deleting a SAS OLAP cube, you should note the difference between the Delete function and the Delete Physical Cube function. The Delete function deletes the entire cube, whereas the Delete Physical function deletes the physical cube files but maintains the cube metadata.

The Delete function should be used on a cube only if you are re-creating the cube from a completely different data set or table. The use of the Delete function will remove all information about a cube, including security information and information maps.

The tree view in SAS OLAP Cube Studio lists the different objects that are used to create and manage cubes, including tables, libraries, schemas, and jobs. As with cubes, you can delete an object by selecting Delete from either the Edit menu or the object's context menu. After selecting Delete, select Yes to delete the object.

When building and maintaining SAS OLAP cubes, it might be necessary at times to delete the physical files for a cube but maintain the cube metadata. You can delete just the physical files for a cube by using the Delete Physical Cube function in SAS OLAP Cube Studio. The cube metadata is maintained and the cube is then listed in the tree view as a cube metadata definition.

If you are manually editing and deleting cubes, you can use the DELETE or DELETE_PHYSICAL options with the PROC OLAP statement.