Curtis E Dyreson

US Patent:

7133865, Nov 7, 2006

Filed:

Jun 30, 2000

Appl. No.:

10/031911

Inventors:

Torben Bach Pedersen - DK-8200 Århus N, DK
Christian S. Jensen - DK-9260 Gistrup, DK
Curtis E. Dyreson - Pullman WA, US

International Classification:

G06F 7/00
G06F 17/00
G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707 3, 707 4, 707103

Abstract:

A method, a computer system and a computer program product for a computer system for transforming general On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) hierarchies into summarizable hierarchies whereby pre-aggregation is disclosed, by which fast query response times for aggregation queries without excessive storage use is made possible even when the hierarchies originally are irregular. Pre-aggregation is essential for ensuring adequate response time during data analysis. Most OLAP systems adopt the practical pre-aggregation approach, as opposed to full pre-aggregation, of materializing only select combinations of aggregates and then re-use these for efficiently computing other aggregates. However, this re-use of aggregates is contingent on the dimension hierarchies and the relationships between facts and dimensions satisfying stringent constraints. The present invention significantly extends the scope of practical pre-aggregation by transforming irregulare dimension hierarchies and fact-dimension relationships into well-behaved structures that enable practical pre-aggregation.