Online analytical processing

Computer software which uses multi-dimensional databases and thus provides more detailed analyses and greater analytical speed than formerly possible. OLAP is distinguished from “Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)”, which typically uses relational databases which are characterized as being two-dimensional (rows and columns). OLTP software supports many users who are adding, editing, and removing individual records in a database, one record at a time. To do a query in this context involves searching many individual records, which could bring even a powerful computer to a standstill if it involved many millions of records. OLAP, on the other hand, tends to deal with data which is already summarized in such a way as to support what is known as “multidimensional data analysis”. By pre-digesting or “consolidating” the values contained in many separate records and storing the results back into the database, there is now a third dimension (time, or “trend”) to the database that allows a much faster response time, now matter how large the database has become. While the standard database language for two-dimensional, relational databases is Structured Query Language (SQL), OLAP databases will require a new language, possibly called MDSQL, for multi-dimensional structured query language.


 


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