MDX can navigate multidimensional data and return data in more than two dimensions.
MDX allows to,
- Query multidimensional data
- Build dimensions and cubes
- Create calculated members
- Define security restrictions
And more…
SQL queries can return data in two dimensions only whereas MDX queries can return data in more than two dimensions called a cellset.
Cellsets are typically flattened into two dimensions for display but an intersection of the various dimensions to the value. E.g. three dimensional cube.