Hi John,
Internally TM1 uses tab characters to separate hierarchy and element names in some cases. That tab character, AFAIK, is still the only 'metacharacter'. TM1 doesn't complain if you don't have alternate hierarchies, because it can't get confused until you do, but if you want to take advantage of alternate hierarchies you can no longer have tab characters in your element names or aliases, and that's what this error is trying to tell you.
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Hubert Heijkers
STSM, Program Director TM1 Functional Database Technology and OData Evangelist
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Original Message:
Sent: Sun November 02, 2025 11:27 PM
From: John O'Leary
Subject: Error when attempting to create a hierarchy
Here is the exact error, but note that it doesn't matter what the name of the hierarchy is,
Error: Prolog procedure line (12): DIMENSIONHIERARCHYCREATE: Cannot create hierarchy "Lifestage": dimension "Item" already has element names/aliases containing metacharacters.
I'm assuming this is saying that there are reserved characters already in use somewhere? Has anyone come across this?
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John O'Leary
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