OLAP

OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing)

• Provides a front-end to the warehouse to enable

fast querying of information in the warehouse.

• OLAP systems use data in multidimensional

formats (“data cubes”) to answer queries faster
 OLAP Tool Applications:
Insights

• OLAP is Fast Analysis of Shared Multidimensional

Information (FASMI). It gives insights following:

• Why it is happening?
• What is the problem? Where is the problem?
• Where it is happening?
• What are the causes?
• What is division wise performance?
• What is performance of sales managers?
 Introducing OLAP
• The dynamic synthesis, analysis, and consolidation
of large volumes of multi-dimensional data, Codd
(1993).

• Describes a technology that uses a multi-

dimensional view of aggregate data to provide quick
access to strategic information for purposes of
advanced analysis.

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 Introducing OLAP
• Enables users to gain a deeper understanding and
knowledge about various aspects of their
corporate data through fast, consistent, interactive
access to a wide variety of possible views of the
data.

• Allows users to view corporate data in such a way

that it is a better model of the true dimensionality
of the enterprise.

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 Introducing OLAP
• Can easily answer „who?‟ and „what?‟ questions,
however, ability to answer „what if?‟ and „why?‟
type questions distinguishes OLAP from general-
purpose query tools.
• Types of analysis ranges from basic navigation
and browsing (slicing and dicing) to calculations,
to more complex analyses such as time series and
complex modeling.

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 Examples of OLAP Applications in Various
Functional Areas

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 A Sample Data Cube
Total annual sales
Date of TV in U.S.A.
1Qtr 2Qtr 3Qtr 4Qtr sum
TV
PC U.S.A
VCR

Country
sum
Canada

Mexico

sum
Browsing a Data Cube

• Visualization
• OLAP capabilities
• Interactive manipulation
 OLAP Data Cube Operations
• Slicing
– refers to selecting the dimensions used to view the
cube (“customer” by “product” by “date”)

• Dicing
– refers to selecting actual positions or values along
some dimensions. (portion of the above cube where
product = “Mr. Snowman”)
 OLAP Data Cube Operations
• Roll-up
– refers to increasing the level of granularity along a
dimension (with a hierarchy) (choosing “region”
instead of “state” as a dimension)
• Drill-down
– refers to decreasing the level of granularity along a
dimension (choosing “state” instead of “region” as a
dimension)
• Pivoting
– refers to creating cross-tab type data cubes by using
two or more dimensions and creating a new view with
an attribute for each grouping dimension and an
additional attribute for the aggregate measure
 Representing Multi-Dimensional Data

• Example of two-dimensional query.

– What is the total revenue generated by property sales in
each city, in each quarter of 1997?‟

• Choice of representation is based on types of queries end-

user may ask.

• Compare representation - three-field relational table versus

two-dimensional matrix.

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 Multi-Dimensional Data as Three-Field Table
versus Two-Dimensional Matrix

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 Representing Multi-Dimensional Data

• Example of three-dimensional query.

– „What is the total revenue generated by property sales
for each type of property (Flat or House) in each city,
in each quarter of 1997?‟

• Compare representation - four-field relational table versus

three-dimensional cube.

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 Multi-Dimensional Data as Four-Field Table versus
Three-Dimensional Cube

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 Dimensional Modeling

• Dimensions are organized into hierarchies

– E.g., Time dimension: days weeks quarters
– E.g., Product dimension: product product line brand
• Dimensions have attributes

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 Three tier DW architecture

DW Server OLAP Engine

Clients