CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqloracle-database
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Reputation: 12484

What are reporting cubes in regards to Oracle SQL?

I am curious about what "reporting cubes" are and how they relate to Oracle SQL ?

I read that they are similar to V-Lookup in Excel, but I'm not understanding much else.

thanks !

Upvotes: 0

Views: 63

Answers (1)

simon at rcl
simon at rcl

Reputation: 7344

They're rather more than that! A Cube is an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) database, as opposed to a normal DB which is an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) DB. It's a database optimised for reporting - many times faster than querying an OLTP database. For example, I had a DB which took users up to 2 hours to get reports out. We put the data in an OLAP cube and the queries took less than 10 seconds.

This Wikipedia article is a reasonable place to start.

Note that most OLAP databases will not be updated in real time as the OLTP db is updated, but will have to have extracts made on a regular basis. Also, designing an OLAP db is not like designing an OLTP one. You need to analyse the queries the users are going to want, and split your data into Fact tables (the base data which is being reported) and Dimensions (how the users will want the data selected selected or summed). Not too difficult once you get your head round the idea, though.

Upvotes: 2

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