Datasets contain data from your data warehouse. You add a dataset to your document when you want to display the data that is part of that dataset. A dataset is the same as a MicroStrategy report: they both define which information the Intelligence Server retrieves from the data warehouse or cache.
The information in a dataset can include attributes, custom groups, consolidations, metrics, and so on. These are dataset objects. As with reports, dataset objects are all of the objects that are part of the definition of the dataset.
If you own MicroStrategy OLAP Services, a dataset can contain a larger set of objects than are actually displayed in the document. This allows analysts to have some flexibility by adding or removing objects from the document as they analyze the data. For more information about these subset reports, see Using a subset report as a dataset.
A grouping and sorting dataset is the main dataset report allowing you to add objects from it to the grouping section in a document. When you create a new document, you can choose a MicroStrategy report to be the grouping and sorting dataset for the document. The document can be grouped and sorted using fields from the grouping and sorting dataset only.
Note: The grouping and sorting dataset is displayed in bold text in the Dataset Objects pane. If a document only has one dataset then, by default, that dataset is the grouping and sorting dataset.
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