Extensions for adding and removing calculated members in a multidimensional database
View Patent ↗Systems, clients, servers, methods, and computer-readable media of varying scope are described in which, two extensions for a multidimensional database query language extensions, AddCalculatedMembers and StripCalculatedMembers, allow an OLAP client to easily control the integration of calculated members into the results of OLAP database queries. The OLAP client need not be aware of the details of which calculated members are defined within the multidimensional database and need not explicitly request the inclusion or removal of each calculate member from the output data set of the query.
1. A computerized system for processing a database query directed to a multidimensional database comprising:
a processor and a computer-readable medium;
an operating environment executing on the processor from the computer-readable medium;
an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) server executing within the operating environment and maintaining the multidimensional database, wherein the OLAP server processes the database query by determining a subset of the database for each member of an input data set specified by the query;
including in the processing of the query any calculated members of the database that are within at least one of subsets of the database, without the query specifying any calculated members of the database;
the OLAP server generates an output data set to include any of the calculated members of the database;
the OLAP server processes a query directive of a query extension that directs calculated members to be excluded from an output of the query, resulting in processing the query using non-calculated members specified by the input data set; and
in a situation when the OLAP server processes said query directive of exclusion, the OLAP server initializes an output data set to an empty set, copies the non-calculated members of the input data set to the output data set, and processes the query using the output data set.
2. The computerized system of claim 1 , wherein the OLAP server receives the query from an OLAP client application via a query processor.
3. The computerized system of claim 1 , wherein for each member of the input data set the OLAP server identifies, within a dimension of the database, each member's siblings, member's descendants and descendants of the siblings.
4. The computerized system of claim 1 , wherein the database is a relational database system.
5. A computerized system for processing a database query directed to a multidimensional database comprising:
a processor and a computer-readable medium;
an operating environment executing on the processor from the computer-readable medium;
an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) server executing within the operating environment and maintaining the multidimensional database, wherein the OLAP server processes the database query by determining whether the query includes an extension directing the OLAP server to automatically exclude calculated members of an input data set; wherein processing the query includes generating an output data set based on the determination;
when a query directive of the query extension is identified that directs that calculated members be excluded from output of the query, processing the query using non-calculated members specified by the input data set; and
the OLAP server initializing an output data set to an empty set, copies the non-calculated members of the input data set to the output data set, and processes the query using the output data set.
6. The computerized system of claim 5 , wherein the OLAP server receives the query from an OLAP client application via a query processor.
7. The computerized system of claim 5 , wherein the database is a relational database system.
8. A computerized method for processing a received query directed to a multidimensional database comprising:
parsing the received query to identify whether the query contains a query extension that indicates specifically how calculated members are to be handled in processing the query;
when a query directive of the query extension is identified that directs calculated members be excluded from output of the query, processing the query using non-calculated members specified by an input data set;
when the query directive of the query extension is identified that directs that calculated members be included in the output of the query then performing at least the steps of:
determining a subset of the database for each member of an input data set specified by the query;
processing the query using any calculated members of the database that are within at least one of subsets of the database, without the query specifying any calculated members of the database;
wherein the processing the query includes generating an output data set based on the directive of the query extension; and
the processing the query includes processing the query with an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) server.
9. A computerized method for processing a received query directed to a multidimensional database comprising:
parsing the received query to identify whether the query contains a query extension that indicates specifically how calculated members is handled in processing the query;
when a query directive of the query extension is identified that directs calculated members be excluded from an output of the query, processing the query using non-calculated members specified by an input data set;
when a query directive of the query extension is identified that directs calculated members be included in the output of the query then performing at least the steps of:
determining a subset of the database for each member of an input data set specified by the query;
processing the query using any calculated members of the database that is within at least one of subsets of the database, without the query specifying any calculated members of the database;
the processing the query includes generating an output data set based on the directive of the query extension; and
the determining a subset for each member includes identifying within a dimension of the database each member's siblings, member's descendants and descendants of the siblings.