| Aggregation |
Facts are summed up for selected dimensions from the original fact table, resulting fewer rows for aggregate tables and making queries run faster. |
| Cube |
A multidimensional database that holds data more like a 3D spreadsheet rather than a relational database. The cube allows different views of the data to be quickly displayed. |
| Data Explosion |
A huge increase in database size, resulting from pre-calculating a large proportion of all the possible aggregations and other pre-defined calculations. |
| Data Mart |
Same definition as data warehouse but have more limited users and data content. |
| Data Warehouse |
A consolidated view of your enterprise data, optimized for reporting and analysis. |
| DOLAP |
Desktop OLAP. Performs local multidimensional analysis and presentation of data downloaded to local machines from relational or multidimensional databases. |
| Dimension Table |
Contains attributes that describe fact records in the fact table. Some of these attributes provide descriptive information; others are used to specify how fact table data should be summarized to provide useful information to the analyst. |
| Drag and Drop |
A graphical user interface (GUI) capability that lets you perform operations by moving the icon of an object with the mouse into another window or onto another icon. |
| Drill-across |
Data analysis across dimensions. |
| Drill-down |
Data analysis to a child attribute. Decreases the level of aggregation or increases detail. |
| Drill-through |
Data analysis that goes from an OLAP cube into the relational database. |
| Drill-up |
Data analysis to a parent attribute. |
| ETL |
Extraction, Transformation, and Loading. |
| Fact Table |
Consists of the measurements, metrics or facts of a business process. It also consists of foreign keys to the dimension tables which actually store all the information about the business process. |
| HOLAP |
Hybrid OLAP. Provides multidimensional analysis of data stored in a multidimensional database and RDBMS. |
| Hypercube |
Stores all data in a single cube which has all dimensions applied to it. |
| Metadata |
Data about data. Include how the structures and calculation rules are stored, data sources, definitions, user access privileges, etc. |
| MOLAP |
Multidimensional OLAP. Stores data in multidimensional cubes |
| Multicube |
A subset of a hypercube, with fewer dimensions than the surrounding hypercube. |
| Multidimensional |
Data structure with three or more independent dimensions. |
| OLAP |
On-Line Analytical Processing. A technology for collecting, managing, processing and presenting multidimensional data for analysis and management purposes. |
| OLTP |
On-Line Transaction Processing. An operational system for collecting and managing the base data in an organization. |
| Pivot |
Re-orients the multidimensional view of data. |
| RDBMS |
Relational Database Management System. Stores, processes, and manages data in relational tables. |
| ROLAP |
Relational OLAP. Stores data in relational databases. |
| Roll-up |
Increases the level of aggregation. |
| Slice and dice |
Rearranges data so that it can be viewed from different perspectives. |
| Snowflake Schema |
A variant of the star schema with normalized dimension tables. |
| Sparse |
Only a small proportion of potential data cells are actually occupied in a multidimensional structure. |
| Star Schema |
A data warehouse design that enhances the performance of multidimensional queries on traditional relational databases. Each dimension is represented by a single dimension table. |
