Hierarchy and level properties

• 2026-09-23
• Jeroen ter Heerdt

Applies to:

• ✔ Tabular Editor 2
• Tabular Editor 3
  ✔ Desktop
  ✔ Business
  ✔ Enterprise

This page covers the properties of user-defined hierarchies and of the levels in them. For properties that most objects share, see Common properties.

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is a named, ordered list of columns from one table that report authors can drill down through, for example Year > Quarter > Month > Date or Category > Subcategory > Product. Each step is a level. Hierarchies make it easier to build drill-down visuals and PivotTables, but they don't change how the data is stored or calculated.

All the levels of a hierarchy must come from the table the hierarchy belongs to. To build a hierarchy across tables, first bring the columns into one table, for example with calculated columns that use RELATED.

In the TOM Explorer, you add levels to a hierarchy by dragging columns onto it. See Drag and drop objects.

Common properties

• Name
• Description
• Display Folder
• Hidden
• Annotations
• Extended Properties
• Changed Properties
• Error Message
• Object Type
• State
• Lineage Tag
• Source Lineage Tag
• Translated Names
• Translated Descriptions
• Translated Display Folders
• Synonyms
• Shown in Perspective

Options

Hide Members

HideMembers · HierarchyHideMembersType · compatibility level 1400+

Whether client tools hide members with a blank value. Use it for ragged hierarchies, where some branches have fewer levels than others. For example, in a geography hierarchy Country > State > City, some countries have no states. Without hiding, the user sees an empty member at the State level between the country and its cities.

Value	Meaning
Default	Show all members, including blank ones. Use this for a regular, balanced hierarchy.
HideBlankMembers	Hide a member when its value is blank, so the child members appear directly under the parent.

For the hiding to work, the missing levels must really be blank, not a placeholder such as N/A. Excel respects this property. Power BI doesn't, and shows the blank members anyway.

The Properties view only shows Hide Members at compatibility level 1400 or higher.

Level

A level is one step in a hierarchy. Each level points to a column of the hierarchy's table, and has its own name, which can differ from the column's name. For example, a level named Month can point to a column named MonthName.

Common properties

• Name
• Description
• Annotations
• Extended Properties
• Changed Properties
• Object Type
• Lineage Tag
• Source Lineage Tag
• Translated Names
• Translated Descriptions
• Synonyms

Levels don't have their own Hidden or Display Folder, and they aren't added to perspectives separately: they follow their hierarchy. Level names can be translated, and they should be, if the hierarchy's name is. The Best Practice Analyzer rule Translate Hierarchy Level Names for All Cultures flags levels of visible hierarchies that have no translated name in one or more of the model's cultures.

Basic

Column

Column · Column

The column that provides the values of the level. It must be a column of the same table as the hierarchy, and a column can only be used once in the same hierarchy. The level shows the column's values in the column's sort order, so to show months in calendar order, set Sort By Column on the month name column (see @object-properties-columns).

You can hide the column itself and still use it in a hierarchy. This is a common way to make users browse the data through the hierarchy instead of through the separate columns.

Ordinal

Ordinal · int

The position of the level within the hierarchy, starting at 0 for the top level. The ordinals of the levels in a hierarchy must be 0, 1, 2 and so on, without gaps or duplicates.

You don't normally set the value by hand. Tabular Editor 3 keeps the ordinals numbered for you:

• When you drag levels into a different order in the TOM Explorer, Tabular Editor renumbers all levels of the hierarchy.
• When you delete a level, Tabular Editor renumbers the remaining levels to close the gap.
• When you type a new Ordinal in the Properties view, Tabular Editor moves the level to that position and renumbers the other levels.
• When you add a level, it goes to the bottom of the hierarchy, unless you drop the column between two existing levels.

You can only set Ordinal for one level at a time.

Tabular Editor 2 renumbers level ordinals in the same way when you drag levels into a different order and when you delete a level.

You can also drag levels onto another hierarchy in the same table to move them there. See Drag and drop objects.