In a nutshell, an OLAP cube is a reporting mechanism containing hierarchical "dimensions" and "measures", which allow users to create their own reports. Dimensions are organised in a hierarchical manner, allowing users to "drill up" and "drill down" within the dimensions.
For example, if an OLAP cube contains information about Loan Approvals for a bank, your dimensions could be something like:
- "Approval Date" - within this dimension the hierarchy could be something like Year --> Month --> Day, allowing users to filter on a particular day's, month's or year's approval details
- "Approver" - within this dimension the hierarchy could be something like State --> Region --> Branch Name, allowing users to filter on which branch/es approval details they want to see
- "Product Type" - within this dimension the hierarchy could be something like Product Group (eg. Home Loan, Business Loan, Personal Loan etc) --> Product Type (eg. Fixed Interest Home Loan, Variable Interest Home Loan)
In the same cube you also have "measures" such as:
- "Approval Amount"
- "Budget Amount"
- "Number of Approvals"
The users are then able to create their own customised reports from this cube to meet their own needs. For example, a user may want to see the budget amount for all loans for the entire year, while another user may want to see the number of approvals made within a month, for a particular state.
Just my ideas anyway, im sure others will have more to add.
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