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Multidimensional database

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Multidimensional databases are variously (depending on the context) data aggregators which combine data from a multitude of data sources; databases which offer networks, hierarchies, arrays and other data formats difficult to model in SQL; or databases which give a high degree of flexibility in the definition of dimensions, units, and unit relationships, regardless of data format.

Multi-dimensional databases are especially useful in a sales and marketing applications that involve time series. Large volumes of sales and inventory data can be stored to ultimately be used for logistics and executive planning. For example, data can be more readily segregated by sales region, product, or time period. While many of the major database vendors have recognized and implemented at least a partial solution, most frequently they rely upon a Star database design. However, The Star database design does not account for "sparse data" which can dramatically improve the performance of database reporting. Database strategies to manage sparse data results in the compression of large blocks of empty data elements and improves the performance of the database as a whole.

This is an active area of database development, in which the set of desired features is somewhat vague, but better-defined than the set of known or proposed solutions. Defining and implementing a database which allows people at each level of an organization to define tables and data formats in the way that is most useful to them, yet which supports a single clear query language and consistent infrastructure, remains an open problem.

Examples


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