OLAP Cubes Ming-Nu Lee OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
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OLAP Cubes Ming-Nu Lee OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Performs multidimensional analysis of business data Provides capability for complex calculations, trend analysis, and sophisticated modelling Foundation of many kinds of business applications OLAP Cube Multidimensional database Method of storing data in a multidimensional form Optimized for data warehouse and OLAP apps Structure: Data(measures) categorized by dimensions Dimension as a hierarchy, set of parent-child relationships Not exactly a “cube” Schema 1) Star Schema • Every dimension is represented with only one dimension table • Dimension table has attributes and is joined to the fact table using a foreign key • Dimension table not joined to each other • Dimension tables are not normalized • Easy to understand and provides optimal disk usage Schema 1) Snowflake Schema • Dimension tables are normalized • Uses smaller disk space • Easier to implement • Query performance reduced • Maintenance increased Dimension Members Identifies a data item’s position and description within a dimension Two types of dimension members 1) Detailed members • Lowest level of members • Has no child members • Stores values at members intersections which are stored as fact data 2) Aggregate members • Parent member that is the total or sum of child members • A level above other members Fact Data Data values described by a company’s business activities Exist at Member intersection points Aggregation of transactions integrated from a RDBMS, or result of Hierarchy or cube formula calculation Operations Slice Dice Roll-up (Drill up) Roll-down (Drill down) Pivot Slice The act of picking a rectangular subset of a cube by choosing a value for one of its dimensions Dice Similar to slice, but it allows analyst to pick specific values of multiple dimensions which produces a subcube Roll-Up (Drill up) Also known as consolidation or aggregation 1) Reducing dimensions 2) Climbing up concept hierarchy Roll-Down (Drill Down) Fragment data into smaller parts Opposite of roll-up 1) Increasing a dimension 2) Moving down the concept hierarchy Pivot Provides a different look or presentation of data by rotating the cube or axes Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) Originally developed in the late 1990s Language for expressing analytical queries Extension of SQL language A MDX expression returns a multi-dimensional result set that consist of axis data and cell data Advantages Information and calculations are consistent in an OLAP cube “What if” scenarios can be quickly created and analyzed Broad or specific terms can be easily searched for in the database Slice and dice cube data by various dimensions, measures and filters Good for analyzing time series Disadvantages Data must be organized into a star or snowflake schema which hard to implement and administer A single OLAP cube cannot have a large number of dimensions Transactional data unable to be accessed with OLAP cubes Modification of a cube requires a full update of the cube References What is OLAP (Online Analytical Processing): Cube, Operations & Types, https://www.guru99.com/online-analytical-processing.html#8 (2017). Data Cube Operations – SQL Queries, https://blogs.perficient.com/2017/08/02/data-cube-operations-sql-queries/ http://olap.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLAP_cube Rouse, M. (2012). OLAP cube, https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/OLAP-cube Rouse, M. (2012). multidimensional expressions (MDX), https://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/multidimensional-expressions- MDX Star and SnowFlake Schema in Data Warehousing, https://www.guru99.com/star- snowflake-data-warehousing.html.