Creating Data Objects Using the OLAP DML |
Data objects contain the data that you want to analyze and the results of the analysis.
Table: OLAP Data Object Definition Statements briefly describes the data objects that you can define in an analytic workspace and the OLAP DML statements that you use to define these objects.
OLAP Data Object Definition Statements
| Object Name | Description | DEFINE command |
|---|---|---|
| Variable | An array of values that you want to analyze or an array of values that are the result of the analysis. | DEFINE VARIABLE
|
| Dimension | A dimension or index to one or more variables or relations, or provide a list of values to an OLAP DML program. Typically, dimensions for variables are detailed, multilevel hierarchical dimensions. | DEFINE DIMENSION
|
| Composite | A list of dimension value combinations that you use to dimension variables when you do not want the variable to have empty cells. | DEFINE COMPOSITE
|
| Relation | A multidimensional array whose values specify correspondence between the values of one or more dimensions. For example, a parent relation for a hierarchical dimension describes the child-parent relationship of the values within the dimension. | DEFINE RELATION
|
Oracle OLAP also supports the definition of dimension surrogates and valuesets that you can use in calculations instead of dimensions. (You cannot use these objects to dimension variables or relations.) See DEFINE SURROGATE and DEFINE VALUESET for more information.
Typically, you populate the base values of your data objects from relational tables or from flat files as discussed in "Data Loading Programs". You then calculate other values from these base values of the base objects using calculation specifications as described in "Creating Calculation Specifications". You can also assign values to variables and relations using the SET and SET1 statements and add values to dimensions using MAINTAIN statements.