Choose Index below for a list of all words and phrases defined in this glossary.
Multidimensional Analysis - Also Known As: OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing)
A process of analysis that involves organizing and summarizing data in a multiple number of dimensions.
People can comprehend a far greater amount of information if that information is organized into dimensions and into hierarchies. The wide use of spreadsheets and graphs illustrates the need for people to have their information organized.
A spreadsheet is a two-dimensional analysis tool. If a person could comprehend 10 individual facts, they could possibly comprehend 100 facts if they were arranged in a spreadsheet.
If 3 or 4 or 5 dimensions could be displayed, the amount of information that could be comprehended would be increased exponentially - to 1000 facts, 10,000 facts, and 100,000 facts.
Multidimensional data is also organized hierarchically, allowing users to "drill down" for more detailed information, "drill up" to see a broader, more summarized view, and "slice and dice" to dynamically change the combinations of dimensions that are being viewed.
[Category=Data Warehousing ]
Source: SDG Computing Inc., 10 May 2010 09:38:26, SDG Computing, now offline
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Multidimensional Analysis - The objective of Multidimensional Analysis is for end users to gain insight into the meaning contained in databases. The multi-dimensional approach to analysis aligns the data content with the analyst's mental model, hence reducing confusion and lowering the incidence of erroneous interpretations. It also eases navigating the database, screening for a particular subset of data, hence asking for the data in a particular orientation and defining analytical calculations. Furthermore, because the data is physically stored in a multidimensional structure, the speed of these operations is many times faster and more consistent than is possible in other database structures. This combination of simplicity and speed is one of the key benefits of Multidimensional Analysis.
[Category=Information Management ]
Source: Information-Management.com, 28 June 2010 08:15:10, http://www.information-management.com/glossary/m.html
Multidimensional Analysis - Informational Analysis on data which takes into account many different relationships, each of which represents a dimension. For example, a retail analyst may want to understand the relationships among sales by region, by quarter, by demographic distribution (income, education level, gender), by product. Multi-dimensional analysis will yield results for these complex relationships.
[Category=Data Warehousing ]
Source: Sun.com, 08 August 2010 10:29:28, http://www.sun.com/third-party/dw/brochures/67198.Acrobat.pdf
Multidimensional Analysis - Informational Analysis on data which takes into account many different relationships, each of which represents a dimension. For example, a retail analyst may want to understand the relationships among sales by region, by quarter, by demographic distribution (income, education level, gender), by product. Multi-dimensional analysis will yield results for these complex relationships.
[Category=Data Warehousing ]
Source: Aexis Business Intelligence, 20 December 2010 10:09:31, http://www.aexis.eu/DataWarehouse-Glossary/
Multidimensional Analysis - The analysis of business indicators by examining them from different points of view. One can examine revenue by product, or revenue by geography, or revenue by time period. It is also known as dimensional analysis.
[Category=Business Intelligence ]
Source: ElegantJ BI Business Intelligence, 01 November 2012 09:05:42, http://www.elegantjbi.com/resources/glossary_a.htm
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