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Cube Basics... Need a good overview on why one chooses to create a cube, and what one contains...

  • February 17, 2009 at 8:43 am

    #383949

    HELP!!! I need to get the basics on OLAP cubes:

    - What they are

    - Why they're used

    - What constitutes each of the following:

    - Dimensions

    - Measures

    - Facts

    In other words: CUBE 101.

    References to good material on this subject will be appreciated as well as whatever you can explain in your response. Thanks!

    Steve

    (aka smunson)

    :):):)

    Steve (aka sgmunson) 🙂 🙂 🙂
    Rent Servers for Income (picks and shovels strategy)

  • February 17, 2009 at 9:07 pm

    #945636

    Hi Steve,

    Please gio through the link below to learn more abt OLAP Cubes.

    http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:0i5jwsmU7XUJ:zulfiqar.typepad.com/zulfiqars_web/files/introduction_to_olap.ppt+OLAP+cubes+%2Bbasics&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in

    Also try Googling.:hehe:

    Thanks

    Kiran

  • February 18, 2009 at 2:46 am

    #945748

    very basic overview:

    A Cube can be best summed up as something you want to analyse e.g. Sales, Inventory

    A Dimension is how you look (or from what side) you look at the information - e.g. Sales Region, Product, Customer or Supplier.

    A Fact is the actual information you are trying to analyse. e.g. Qty sold, weight, price etc.

    Obviously it gets more complicated than that. but that's a good start point.

    _____________________________________________________________________________MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer (2005)

  • February 19, 2009 at 7:03 am

    #946634

    Read Ralph Kimball's book: The Data Warehouse Toolkit

    Also, there's tons of good information on his web site at:

    http://www.ralphkimball.com/%5B/url%5D

    Cubes are generally used for analytic reporting against large volumes of static data. They are pre-summarized along all of the dimension attributes to allow for fast summary reporting. They are not necessarily great for detail level reporting.

    Generally, they are built off-line and refreshed on a scheduled interval. Often daily or weekly but sometimes we build them to refresh closer to real-time.

    It all depends on the volume of data and what type of reporting your users need. You may end up with a hybrid solution that contains cubes but then allows drill-through to detail data when required.

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