Page 50 - DCAP606_BUSINESS_INTELLIGENCE

Unit 4: Understanding OLAP

Member: An item in a hierarchy comprising one or more occurrences of data. A member Notes
can be either unique or non-unique.

Calculated Member: It is a member of a dimension whose worth is calculated at run time
by utilizing an expression.

Example: A calculated member, Profit, can be determined by subtracting the worth of
the member, charges, from the worth of the constituent, sales.

Dimension: A set of one or more organized hierarchies of levels in a cube that a user
understands and benefits as the base for data analysis.

Example: A geography dimension might include levels for Country/Region, State/
Province, and town etc.

Hierarchy: A logical tree structure that organizes the members of a dimension such that
each member has one parent member and none or more child members. A child member
is a member in the next lower level in a hierarchy that is exactly related to the current
member.

Example: In a time hierarchy containing the grades Quarterly, Monthly, and Daily, June
is a child member of Quarter2. A parent is a member in the next higher level in a hierarchy that
is exactly related to the current member. For example, in a time hierarchy that contains the
grades Quarterly, Monthly, and Daily, Quarter1 is the parent of January month.

Level: Within a hierarchy, data can be organized into smaller and higher levels of detail,
such as Year, Quarter, Month, Week and Day level in case of time hierarchy.
Figure 4.2 shows relationship among OLAP components.

Figure 4.2: Relationship among OLAP Components

Source: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQmlV7tN_ufWESigi-6Txks5pftS4HO-
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4.2 Advantages of OLAP

Following are the advantages of OLAP:
(a) One major advantage of OLAP is consistency of information and computed results.
No issue how much or how quick data is processed through OLAP programs or servers,
the reporting result is offered in a reliable production, so analysts and executives habitually
understand what to gaze for and where.

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