Slicing

A slice in a multidimensional array is a column of data corresponding to a single value for one or more
members of the dimension. Slicing is the act of
divvying up the cube to extract this information
for a given slice. It is important because it helps
the user visualize and gather information
specific to a dimension. When you think of
slicing, think of it as a specialized filter for a
particular value in a dimension. For instance, if
a user wanted to know the total number of
Wireless Mice sold over the whole dataset time
space (2000-2003), the user would perform a
horizontal slice as shown in Figure 4.





Figure 5 shows the slicing that filters the information so that we have only the data for ASIA for all
products and for all the years.

Dicing
Dicing is similar to slicing but it works a little bit differently. When one thinks of slicing, filtering is done to
focus on a particular attribute, dicing on the other hand is more a zoom feature that selects a subset over
all the dimensions but for
specific values of the
dimension.
This tool is very useful in
allowing the user to get more
detailed information on what
goes in on a smaller scale.
For instance, Figure 6 shows a
graphical representation of
dicing for a particular produce,
over a specific time span for a
particular region. The subset
shows the Cell phone market,
in North America only for the
year 2000.
It incorporates the drilling
technique previously defined.
As one can see in Figure 6,
cellphones are subdivided and we use a lower level in the hierarchy and get information for the various
types of cellphones.