Introduction to OLAP DML Programs

Definition: OLAP DML program

An OLAP DML program is a stored procedure, which is written in the OLAP DML, that acts on data in the analytic workspace and helps you accomplish some analytic workspace management or analysis task. You can write OLAP DML programs to perform analytic workspace tasks that you must do repeatedly, or you can write them as part of an application that you are developing.

Types of programs

Two main types of OLAP DML programs

There are two main types of OLAP DML programs: programs that do not return values and programs that return values.

How you can use programs that do not return values

You can use an OLAP DML program that does not return a value as a standalone program or as the main program or subprogram of a multiprogram application. These programs behave like OLAP DML commands.

How you can use programs that return values

You can use a user-defined function in commands and expressions in the same way that you use built-in OLAP DML functions. For more information on user-defined functions, see "Writing User-Defined Functions". For more information on built-in OLAP DML functions, see the OLAP DML Reference.

Related information

For more information about invoking, writing, and compiling programs, see the rest of this chapter; for more information on testing and debugging OLAP DML programs, see Chapter 9.

In contrast to the form of a program, the content is related to the job it was created to do, and it is the individual lines of a program that provide its content. Program lines that accomplish specific purposes are discussed in other chapters in this guide.

For more information on these tasks, see the following table.

IF you want documentation about . . .	THEN see . . .
using data from a SQL database,	Chapter 10 the entry for the SQL command in OLAP DML Reference
reading data from a file,	Chapter 11.
producing reports,	Chapter 12.
using a model for financial data,	Chapter 7 the entry for the DEFINE MODEL command in OLAP DML Reference
details on the syntax and usage of individual OLAP DML commands, functions, options, and programs,	OLAP DML Reference.