About Database Calculation

A database contains two types of values:

For example:

Small differences in the precision of cell values may occur between calculations run on different platforms, due to operating system math library differences.

Note:

Most computers represent numbers in binary, and therefore can only approximately represent real numbers. Because binary computers cannot hold an infinite number of bits after a decimal point, numeric fractions such as one-third (0.3333...) cannot be expressed as a decimal with a terminating point. Fractions with a denominator of the power of two (for example, 0.50) or ten (0.10) are the only real numbers that can be represented exactly. See IEEE Standard 754 for Floating-Point Representation (IEEE, 1985).

Essbase offers two methods for calculating a database:

The method that you choose depends on the type of calculation that you want to perform.