Oracle8i Data Warehousing Guide
Release 2 (8.1.6)

Part Number A76994-01

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Glossary

additive

Describes a fact (or measure) that can be summarized through addition. An additive fact is the most common type of fact. Examples include Sales, Cost, and Profit. (Contrast with nonadditive, semi-additive.)

advisor

The Summary Advisor recommends which materialized views to retain, create, and drop. It helps database administrators manage materialized views.

attribute

A descriptive characteristic of one or more levels. Attributes represent logical groupings that enable end users to select data based on like characteristics. Note that in relational modeling, an attribute is defined as a characteristic of an entity. In Oracle 8i, an attribute is a column in a dimension that characterizes elements of a single level.

aggregation

The process of consolidating data values into a single value. For example, sales data could be collected on a daily basis and then be aggregated to the week level, the week data could be aggregated to the month level, and so on. The data can then be referred to as aggregate data. Aggregation is synonymous with summarization, and aggregate data is synonymous with summary data.

aggregate

Summarized data. For example, unit sales of a particular product could be aggregated by day, month, quarter and yearly sales.

ancestor

A value at any level above a given value in a hierarchy. For example, in a Time dimension, the value "1999" might be the ancestor of the values "Q1-99" and "Jan-99." (See also descendant, hierarchy, level.)

attribute

A descriptive characteristic of one or more levels. For example, the Product dimension for a clothing manufacturer might contain a level called Item, one of whose attributes is Color. Attributes represent logical groupings that enable end users to select data based on like characteristics.

Note that in relational modeling, an attribute is defined as a characteristic of an entity. In Oracle 8i, an attribute is a column in a dimension that characterizes elements of a single level.

child

A value at the level below a given value in a hierarchy. For example, in a Time dimension, the value "Jan-99" might be the child of the value "Q1-99." A value can be a child for more than one parent if the child value belongs to multiple hierarchies. (See also hierarchy, level, parent.)

cleansing

The process of resolving inconsistencies and fixing the anomalies in source data, typically as part of the ETT process. (See also ETT.)

Common Warehouse Metadata (CWM)

A repository standard used by Oracle data warehousing, decision support, and OLAP tools including Oracle Warehouse Builder. The CWM repository schema is a stand-alone product that other products can share--each product owns only the objects within the CWM repository that it creates.

data source

A database, application, repository, or file that contributes data to a warehouse.

data mart

A data warehouse that is designed for a particular line of business, such as sales, marketing, or finance. In a dependent data mart, the data can be derived from an enterprise-wide data warehouse. In an independent data mart, data can be collected directly from sources. (See also data warehouse.)

data warehouse

A relational database that is designed for query and analysis rather than transaction processing. A data warehouse usually contains historical data that is derived from transaction data, but it can include data from other sources. It separates analysis workload from transaction workload and enables a business to consolidate data from several sources.

In addition to a relational database, a data warehouse environment often consists of an ETT solution, an OLAP engine, client analysis tools, and other applications that manage the process of gathering data and delivering it to business users. (See also ETT, OLAP.)

denormalize

The process of allowing redundancy in a table so that it can remain flat. (Contrast with normalize.)

derived fact (or measure)

A fact (or measure) that is generated from existing data using a mathematical operation or a data transformation. Examples include averages, totals, percentages, and differences.

dimension

A structure, often composed of one or more hierarchies, that categorizes data. Several distinct dimensions, combined with measures, enable end users to answer business questions. Commonly used dimensions are Customer, Product, and Time. In Oracle 8i, a dimension is a database object that defines hierarchical (parent/child) relationships between pairs of column sets. In Oracle Express, a dimension is a database object that consists of a list of values.

dimension value

One element in the list that makes up a dimension. For example, a computer company might have dimension values in the Product dimension called "LAPPC" and "DESKPC." Values in the Geography dimension might include "Boston" and "Paris." Values in the Time dimension might include "MAY96" and "JAN97."

drill

To navigate from one item to a set of related items. Drilling typically involves navigating up and down through the levels in a hierarchy. When selecting data, you can expand or collapse a hierarchy by drilling down or up in it, respectively. (See also drill down, drill up.)

drill down

To expand the view to include child values that are associated with parent values in the hierarchy. (See also drill, drill up.)

drill up

To collapse the list of descendant values that are associated with a parent value in the hierarchy.

element

An object or process. For example, a dimension is an object, a mapping is a process, and both are elements.

ETT

Extraction, transformation, and transportation. ETT refers to the methods involved in accessing and manipulating source data and loading it into a data warehouse. The order in which these processes are performed varies.

Note that ETL (extraction, transformation, load) and ETM (extraction, transformation, move) are sometimes used instead of ETT. (See also data warehouse, extraction, transformation, transportation.)

extraction

The process of taking data out of a source as part of an initial phase of ETT. (See also ETT.)

fact table

A table in a star schema that contains facts. A fact table typically has two types of columns: those that contain facts and those that are foreign keys to dimension tables. The primary key of a fact table is usually a composite key that is made up of all of its foreign keys.

A fact table might contain either detail level facts or facts that have been aggregated (fact tables that contain aggregated facts are often instead called summary tables). A fact table usually contains facts with the same level of aggregation.

fact/measure

Data, usually numeric and additive, that can be examined and analyzed. Values for facts or measures are usually not known in advance; they are observed and stored. Examples include Sales, Cost, and Profit. Fact and measure are synonymous; fact is more commonly used with relational environments, measure is more commonly used with multidimensional environments. (See also derived fact.)

fast refresh

An operation that applies only the data changes to a materialized view, thus eliminating the need to rebuild the materialized view from scratch.

file-to-table mapping

Maps data from flat files to tables in the warehouse.

hierarchy

A logical structure that uses ordered levels as a means of organizing data. A hierarchy can be used to define data aggregation; for example, in a Time dimension, a hierarchy might be used to aggregate data from the "Month" level to the "Quarter" level to the "Year" level. A hierarchy can also be used to define a navigational drill path, regardless of whether the levels in the hierarchy represent aggregated totals. (See also dimension, level.)

hub module

The metadata container for process data.

level

A position in a hierarchy. For example, a Time dimension might have a hierarchy that represents data at the "Month," "Quarter," and "Year" levels.

(See also hierarchy.)

level value table

A database table that stores the values or data for the levels you created as part of your dimensions and hierarchies.

mapping

The definition of the relationship and data flow between source and target objects.

materialized view

A pre-computed table comprising aggregated and/or joined data from fact and possibly dimension tables. Also known as a summary or aggregation.

metadata

Data that describes data and other structures, such as objects, business rules, and processes. For example, the schema design of a data warehouse is typically stored in a repository as metadata, which is used to generate scripts used to build and populate the data warehouse. A repository contains metadata.

Examples include: for data, the definition of a source to target transformation that is used to generate and populate the data warehouse; for information, definitions of tables, columns and associations that are stored inside a relational modeling tool; for business rules, discount by 10 percent after selling 1,000 items.

model

An object that represents something to be made. A representative style, plan, or design. Metadata that defines the structure of the data warehouse.

nonadditive

Describes a fact (or measure) that cannot be summarized through addition. An example includes Average. (Contrast with additive, semi-additive.)

normalize

In a relational database, the process of removing redundancy in data by separating the data into multiple tables. (Contrast with denormalize.)

The process of removing redundancy in data by separating the data into multiple tables. (Kimball)

operational data store (ODS)

The cleaned, transformed data from a particular source database.

OLAP

Online analytical processing. OLAP functionality is characterized by dynamic, multidimensional analysis of historical data, which supports activities such as the following:

OLAP tools can run against a multidimensional database or interact directly with a relational database.

parent

A value at the level above a given value in a hierarchy. For example, in a Time dimension, the value "Q1-99" might be the parent of the value "Jan-99." (See also child, hierarchy, level.)

refresh

The mechanism whereby materialized views are populated with data.

schema

A collection of related database objects. Relational schemas are grouped by database user ID and include tables, views, and other objects. (See also snowflake schema, star schema.)

semi-additive

Describes a fact (or measure) that can be summarized through addition along some, but not all, dimensions. Examples include Headcount and On Hand Stock. (Contrast with additive, nonadditive.)

snowflake schema

A type of star schema in which the dimension tables are partly or fully normalized. (See also schema, star schema.)

source

A database, application, file, or other storage facility from which the data in a data warehouse is derived.

star schema

A relational schema whose design represents a multidimensional data model. The star schema consists of one or more fact tables and one or more dimension tables that are related through foreign keys. (See also schema, snowflake schema.)

subject area

A classification system that represents or distinguishes parts of an organization or areas of knowledge. A data mart is often developed to support a subject area such as sales, marketing, or geography. (See also data mart.)

table

A layout of data in columns.

target

Holds the intermediate or final results of any part of the ETT process. The target of the entire ETT process is the data warehouse. (See also data warehouse, ETT.)

transformation

The process of manipulating data. Any manipulation beyond copying is a transformation. Examples include cleansing, aggregating, and integrating data from multiple sources.

transportation

The process of moving copied or transformed data from a source to a data warehouse. (See also transformation.)

validation

The process of verifying metadata definitions and configuration parameters.

versioning

The ability to create new versions of a data warehouse project for new requirements and changes.


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