Apparatus and method for using vertical hierarchies in conjuction with hybrid slowly changing dimension tables
A computer readable medium stores executable instructions to define a hybrid slowly changing dimension table; establish vertical hierarchy tables from the hybrid slowly changing dimension table; query a first vertical hierarchy table to produce first results characterizing current hierarchical relationships; and query a second vertical hierarchy table to produce second results characterizing historical hierarchical relationships.
1 . A computer readable medium storing executable instructions, including executable instructions to:
define a hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
establish vertical hierarchy tables from the hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
query a first vertical hierarchy table to produce first results characterizing current hierarchical relationships; and
query a second vertical hierarchy table to produce second results characterizing historical hierarchical relationships.
2 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to:
form a fact table with information from the hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
wherein the query of the first vertical hierarchy table includes a query of the fact table; and
wherein the query of the second vertical hierarchy table includes a query of the fact table.
3 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to define a hybrid slowly changing dimension table include executable instructions to define a Type II slowly changing dimension table.
4 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the executable instructions to define a hybrid slowly changing dimension table include executable instructions to define a Type III slowly changing dimension table.
5 . A method of processing data, comprising:
defining a hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
establishing vertical hierarchy tables from the hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
querying a first vertical hierarchy table to produce first results characterizing current hierarchical relationships; and
querying a second vertical hierarchy table to produce second results characterizing historical hierarchical relationships.
6 . The method of claim 5 further comprising:
forming a fact table with information from the hybrid slowly changing dimension table;
wherein querying the first vertical hierarchy table includes querying the fact table; and
wherein querying the second vertical hierarchy table includes querying the fact table.
7 . The method of claim 5 wherein defining a hybrid slowly changing dimension table includes defining a Type II slowly changing dimension table.
8 . The method of claim 5 wherein defining a hybrid slowly changing dimension table includes defining a Type III slowly changing dimension table.