A SAS Institute White Paper:

O L A P To o l s a n d Te c h n i q u e s within the SAS System

TECHNOLOGY TO M ATC H T H E WAY PEOPLE THINK

Table of Contents
Technology to Match the Way People Think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Data Warehouse Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Multidimensional Database (MDDB) Server Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Open Client/Server Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Web-Enabled OLAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 OLAP Client Capabilities and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Reference and Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Appendix: List of Stored and Derived Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Technology to Match the Way People Think

The definition of online analytical processing (OLAP) depends on ones perspective. Business managers and analysts usually see OLAP as a way for them to gain rapid access to business data. They expect the data to be organized according to categories that reflect the way they think about the enterprise. For IT personnel who are responsible for implementing a solution, OLAP can present a long list of technical issues including concerns about: The ability of the OLAP solution to integrate with current or planned data warehouse strategies and architectures; Storage requirements and associated costs; Client/server capabilities; Maintenance activities such as update and backup; Performance considerations such as the amount of time required to build multidimensional models. The challenge for IT professionals charged with implementing OLAP is to find a solution that will both supply the functionality users expect and be technically viable for the entire organization now and in the future. The OLAP solution must: Integrate with existing or planned data warehouse architectures; Take advantage of client/server network strategies; Be open and scalable to meet future needs. The SAS OLAP solution provides all the functionality expected by those who will use the system, while meeting all the technical requirements of IT. For users, the SAS OLAP solution provides fast access to large amounts of shared data through a wealth of OLAP client capabilities. The SAS OLAP solution covers the entire spectrum of user needsfrom business executives who want an easy-to-use EIS for viewing data multidimensionally to business analysts who expect sophisticated reach through, data visualization, analysis, and reporting capabilities. With the SAS OLAP solution, IT personnel can seamlessly integrate transactional systems, existing warehouse data, multidimensional databases (MDDBs), and OLAP client capabilities. The SAS OLAP

solution meets these diverse technical and functional requirements by providing: Comprehensive data warehouse integration; Fast, efficient multidimensional database (MDDB) server software; Open, extensible client/server architecture; Web enablement; A broad range of OLAP client capabilities and tools. This white paper details the SAS OLAP solution and discusses how IT personnel can use SAS software to integrate online analytical processing into their existing data warehouse technologies.

Data Warehouse Integration

For years, IT has met the needs of business by investing time and money in the design, implementation, and maintenance of relational technologies. As a result, most business organizations today have a significant investment in relational systems. The SAS OLAP solution enables IT personnel to add multidimensional data structures to existing data warehouses to preserve existing investments in hardware and software while providing fast access to shared, multidimensional information extracted from existing warehouse data.

Architectural Overview Figure 1 is an overview of the architecture of the SAS OLAP solution. The figure illustrates how the SAS OLAP solution incorporates the following capabilities within the data warehouse: SAS multidimensional database (SAS MDDB); Relational data structures (RDBMS, SAS data sets); Metadata (data about both the SAS MDDBs and relational tables including information about how to navigate the warehouse); Data warehouse administration. Warehouse integration enables the SAS OLAP solution to build new business advantage on top of relational data sources. With the SAS OLAP solution, IT personnel can extend the business intelligence capabilities of the organization while preserving existing investments in RDBMS and supporting hardware and network technologies.
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Figure 1

Business Intelligence Environment

Data Warehouse OLAP Client Capabilities and Tools

Perform rapid incremental updates by populating MDDBs with only changed data. The complexities of multidimensionality are already built into MDDBs. These multidimensional data structures are designed to provide optimal performance for a single purpose OLAP.

SAS MDDB EIS

OLTP

Data Warehouse Administrator

Metadata/Navigation

Web

Relational Data Relational Data

Relational Data

API

Multidimensional Database (MDDB) Server Software

Building on the Strengths of RDBMs for High-Performance OLAP IT personnel have long used relational systems to serve a wide range of organizational needs. Meeting these diverse needs can mean increasingly complex relational databases that require careful administration, indexing schemas, SQL optimizers, and complex maintenance routines. Rather than complicating the use of relational technology, the SAS OLAP solution adds value to these tried-and-true RDBM systems. SAS multidimensional databases (SAS MDDBs) enable IT to provide faster, more accessible information for delivery to business users and analysts. SAS MDDBs are single-purpose data structures, which IT can easily build, integrate, and maintain. With the SAS OLAP solution, IT personnel can: Schedule population activities from one data source; Integrate OLAP metadata with existing relational metadata; Store metadata and business rules at one layer; Use the same tools for backup, copy, and maintenance;

The SAS OLAP solution uses SAS Institutes multidimensional database server to provide highperformance OLAP capabilities within an integrated data warehouse environment. The multidimensional database server enables IT to package warehouse data into multidimensional data structures, which deliver data to OLAP client software upon request. With the aid of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), IT personnel can quickly and easily build, maintain, and optimize multidimensional data. For example, from simple point-and-click GUIs, IT personnel can: Use warehouse data to design multidimensional data models based on the least amount of summarization, the most amount of summarization, or projections of the summarizations most likely to be requested by users; Build multidimensional data structures for interactive or batch submission; Change the way the multidimensional data is structured; Control which statistics are stored with which multidimensional data structures; Control the balance between storage and performance; Perform incremental updates; Provide security.

Building Multidimensional Databases (MDDBs) Within a SAS MDDB, data are stored in a summary structure know as an NWAY crossing. An NWAY crossing is a multidimensional data model that represents the full list of crossings specified during the creation of the MDDB. All SAS MDDBs contain an NWAY crossing. In addition to the NWAY crossing, IT personnel can build one or more summary crossings. Summary crossings are created using simple statements of hierarchy. These statements define one or more additional summaries derived from the NWAY crossing. Summary crossings are optional. (See Figure 2.) Figure 2

No limitations on the number of levels within a dimension (classification variables); No limitations on the number of analysis variables; As many as eight statistics can be stored with a SAS MDDB; An additional 13 other statistics are available at run time; Can be updated incrementally. SAS MDDBs can be created on any major platform supported by the SAS System. In addition, regardless of where the SAS MDDBs reside, they are accessible to requesting applications on any supported platform anywhere on the network, including Web-based applications. Factors that Affect Scalability The scalability of multidimensional data structures how well the size of MDDBs can be adjusted to handle the large amounts of data needed for OLAP is the result of a combination of factors. Two factors that potentially can constrain the scalability of multidimensional data structures are: Sparsity -- How well does the model deal with missing, or sparse, data? Total aggregations -- Are summarizations stored in advance or performed at run time? Multidimensional data models that store sparse data in the MDDB, and/or store all summarizations in advance, can result in MDDBs that quickly grow beyond resource capacities. By contrast, the SAS OLAP solution does not store sparse data. (For details, see Preventing Data Explosion Through the Efficient Handling of Sparse Data.). In addition, the SAS OLAP solution enables IT to manage summarizations by providing the ability to either store one or more summarizations in advance, or to allow the summarizations to be performed at run time. (For details, see Controlling the Balance between Storage and Performance.) Making Efficient Use of Storage During the creation of an MDDB, the SAS OLAP solution minimizes the amount of space needed to store the data multidimensionally. Although these reductions are attainable, in part, because the relational warehouse data are aggregated into
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Structure of a SAS MDDB

Summary Crossings

NWAY Crossing

Summary crossings are built for reporting speed and are projections of the most likely aggregates that business managers and other users will expect to see. If a user makes a query that cannot be answered using the current summary crossing, the SAS OLAP solution uses either another summary crossing or the NWAY crossing to answer the query. SAS MDDBs have the following characteristics: Can be created interactively or in batch; Only non-missing cross-tabular data are stored; No limitations on the number of summary crossings;

dimensions in the MDDB, the SAS OLAP solution also minimizes the amount of storage needed for an MDDB by: Controlling the storage statistics; Preventing data explosion through efficient handling of sparse data; Compressing summary records; Storing dimensional labels separately from summaries, which saves space on each record. Figure 3 illustrates the characteristics of multidimensionality that affect storage capacities. Figure 3

values it can store within a given amount of space. For example, suppose two MDDB server software products each produce MDDBs that contain one million values. The MDDB from the first product requires five gigabytes of storage to contain all values, while the MDDB from the second product requires only two gigabytes of storage. Although both products contain the same number of cells, the MDDB from the second product clearly makes more efficient use of storage. How is this difference possible? Although, the efficiency of a multidimensional data model depends on a number of factors, by far the most influential factor is how the server software handles sparse data. The SAS OLAP solution provides superior handling of sparse data. MDDBs do not store sparse data in the NWAY crossing or in summary crossings. Therefore, the actual input cells are smaller than the number of potential cells proportional to the sparsity of the data. By storing only the cells where data actually exist, the SAS OLAP solution keeps the size of the MDDBs to a minimum and thereby improves the performance of OLAP applications. The SAS OLAP solution effectively avoids the potential problems of data explosion and the resulting decreases in performance inherent in highly sparse data structures such as hyper cubes. Controlling the Balance between Storage and Performance As discussed earlier, an NWAY crossing is the basis for each MDDB and is required; summary crossings are optional. However, an MDDB comprised of only the NWAY crossing would require that the NWAY crossing fulfill all requests made by OLAP clients. Basing all client requests on the NWAY crossing does save storage space, but this approach is slower than using summary crossings that anticipate client requests. At the other extreme, an MDDB that contains the NWAY crossing and all possible summary crossings may provide fast response times, but it also requires the maximum amount of storage. How can IT balance these two extremes and thereby use the least amount of storage while providing users with the best response times available? IT personnel

Minimizing Multidimensional Storage Requirements

Dimensions Calculations Sparsity

Relational Data

SAS Multidimensional Database

Controlling the Storage of Statistics Whether calculations are stored or derived at run time can have a significant effect on the size of an MDDB. By default, a minimum of statistics are stored in MDDBs. Optionally, during creation of an MDDB, up to eight statistics can be specified with each MDDB. Depending on which of the eight possible statistics actually are stored, up to 13 other statistics are calculated by the multidimensional server software at run time for a total of 21 available statistics. Keeping the size of the MDDBs to a minimum by storing only simple statistics means MDDBs require short build times and can be easily and quickly maintained by IT. The Appendix lists each statistic, a description, and whether each is stored by default, optionally stored, or derived at run time. Preventing Data Explosion Through the Efficient Handling of Sparse Data The best measurement of the efficiency of a multidimensional data model is in the number of
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can begin to balance storage and performance by considering the following issues: The warehouse data and how it will be used in the OLAP application; The business problem and user expectations; The need for an iterative approach. By basing summarizations on the needs of users, informed decisions can be made about which dimensions should be included and which should not be included. When the levels of summarization needed by users do not exist in the input data, IT can use views, format conversions, and other programming statements to create additional summaries. Understanding the business problem and user expectations helps IT determine more functional priorities. Finally, implementing an OLAP solution including determining what to summarizeshould be an iterative process that fits into the overall data warehouse and business intelligence strategies of the enterprise. Performing Incremental Updates One approach to updating an MDDB is simply to recreate the MDDB from the revised detail data. However, this approach can be time consuming. A better approach is the one provided by the SAS OLAP solution, which enables IT to update MDDBs incrementally. Incremental updates permit new data to be added to an existing MDDB without requiring the entire database to be rebuilt completely with each update. Incremental updates are accomplished by specifying a table containing the updates along with the MDDB to be updated. This update data is preregistered in the metabase. The incremental update process works by creating a temporary MDDB containing all data from the original MDDB and the input table. Once this process is complete, the temporary MDDB is copied into the location of the original MDDB, thereby replacing it. An important advantage of this process comes from the fact that if an incremental update fails for any reason, the original MDDB remains intact. Providing Security Security is a key issue in the implementation of an OLAP solution. When considering how to limit access,
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IT personnel may want to consider at least two levels of securitysystem-level security and applicationslevel security. The SAS OLAP solution adheres to system-level security schemas for all supported platforms as well as enabling password protection at the applications level.

Open Client/Server Architecture

Most large organizations have an assortment of computing resources ranging from mainframes to UNIX systems to desktop and laptop PCs. While each platform offers unique capabilities, integrating an OLAP solution across these different computing environments can be challenging. What is required is a solution that is both open for deployment, as needed in existing client/server networks, and extensible for future hardware and software enhancements. One of the major strengths of the SAS OLAP solution is its open and extensible client/server architecture. The client/server capabilities of the SAS OLAP solution provide: Fast access to remote data through industry-leading network protocols; The ability to move compressed dimensions of data quickly; The ability to store MDDBs on clients including moving MDDBs to local machines for disconnected or mobile OLAP; The ability to reach through to detail data. Support for All Major Platforms The SAS OLAP solution supports all major hardware platforms, which helps IT preserve investments in existing hardware and hardware expertise. With the SAS OLAP solution, IT can move or copy MDDBs and other OLAP data structures to any major platform supported by the SAS System. Because MDDBs are SAS data structures, they are known to other components of the SAS System. Data can be accessed dynamically and remotely using read-only access, which enables large amounts of data to be transferred rapidly among numerous OLAP clients and servers. (See Figure 4.)

Figure 4

MDDBs...Where can they be used?

Web-enabled OLAP for thin-client, anyoneanywhere access; Mobile OLAP for analyses that are disconnected from the network. Having one version of the multidimensional data structure that is portable across all supported platforms makes for easier integration of new customers and less distributed maintenance. Also, as networks change and grow, IT can quickly extend OLAP services simply by porting SAS OLAP applications within the network. Software Compatibility The SAS OLAP solution also preserves investments in existing software and software expertise. The SAS OLAP solution provides access to data in the warehouse via Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) as well as access to specific databases including: IBM's DB2; SQL/DS;

UNIX Server Mainframe

PC Server/Client

Unlike some OLAP tools, the SAS OLAP solution is not limited to Windows, Windows NT, or UNIX platforms. Instead, the SAS OLAP server supports Windows, Windows NT, UNIX, MVS and VMS. The result is that IT can have complete control over how data and OLAP services are assigned across various platforms. IT can use its existing network configuration to provide OLAP to any user anywhere. One Version Portable Across All Supported Platforms In addition to supporting all major platforms, the SAS OLAP solution provides one version of the MDDB that can be built, run, and updated on any supported platform or combination of supported platforms. As a result, IT can build an OLAP application that will run the same on every supported platform. Because the SAS OLAP solution is portable and can be centralized or distributed, the solution does not lock IT into a specific architecture. Instead, IT personnel can leverage current investments in hardware and software by using all of their existing platforms including mainframes, workstations, and desktops in any configuration needed including the following: Central server-based OLAP with middleware; Group-based OLAP in which small MDDBs are deployed to departmental servers; Client-based OLAP by moving MDDBs to the client;

IMS; DB2/2 & SQL/400; Oracle Corp.'s ORACLE; Digital Equipment Corp.'s Rdb/VMS; Computer Associates' CA-DATACOM; INGRES; SYBASE's SQL Server; Microsofts's SQL Server; Software AG's ADABAS; SAS Institute's SYSTEM 2000 Data Management Software. The SAS OLAP solution also supports the following capabilities: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) client controls and can act as an OLE server; Directing of output to other data formats such as Excel spreadsheets and Lotus Notes. By supporting multiple models of client/server computing, the SAS OLAP solution enables IT to distribute OLAP services across the network in the most efficient configuration possible.

OLAP in Tiered Environments Because the SAS OLAP solution supports multiple models of client/server computing, IT personnel can have complete control over how platforms in a mixed hardware environment address each other and make requests of each other. Data and processing functions can be assigned across various systems as needed. Mainframes, remote servers, and local clients can work together, providing the flexibility to match computing resources with particular tasks. Using the best available platforms for different processing needs maximizes the efficiency of all IT resources and improves productivity and profitability. For example, when deploying the SAS OLAP solution in a tiered environment, a possible configuration is to place the data warehouse on a mainframe, one or more SAS MDDBs on a UNIX or Windows NT server, and client capabilities on PCs. In this configuration, the MDDB acts as an engine for delivering summarized warehouse data to the client machines. However, in this same tiered configuration, a SAS MDDB also can act as an engine that receives requests for detail data from OLAP clients, dynamically reaches back to the data warehouse, and then returns the requested data to the client. (See Figure 5.) The source relational data can reside anywhere on the client/sever network and can come from any database supported by the SAS OLAP solution. (For a list of supported databases, see the section Software Compatibility.) The MDDB dynamically generates any needed SQL to fulfill the Figure 5

With the SAS OLAP solution, providing access to warehouse data across any possible client/server configuration means IT need only ensure that the proper access channels are in placeno predefined SQL or other intervention is needed. As a result, the SAS OLAP solution helps IT leverage current investments in hardware, software, and expertise by deploying MDDBs that not only deliver summarized data to clients but also provide online, transparent access to detail data regardless of the client/server network configuration.

Web-Enabled OLAP
In addition to being open to existing hardware and software technologies, a truly open and scalable OLAP solution must be able to incorporate emerging technologies. The growing use of the World Wide Web as a way to deliver client services is a prime example. Traditionally, many business intelligence (BI) systems were designed to enable clients and data servers to communicate as peers. With the advent of the Internet and corporate-owned intranets, new architectural options for BI systems are emerging in which client functionality is reduced by relying more heavily on data servers and application servers for storage and processing. Web-enabled approaches to BI systems can be used in either a two- or three-tiered communications process and can effectively slim down the clients role to that of a viewer of information delivered by the servers. In the extreme, a totally thin client requires no persistent storage; it relies completely on the server for both data and applications. Using the Web for Thin-Client OLAP The SAS OLAP solution is web enabled and supports a full range of client/server configurations including totally thin client. The SAS OLAP solution includes an applications dispatcher that uses Web browsers to send and receive multidimensional data, analyses, and presentations. By relying on MDDBs on the server side for storage and processing, OLAP clients can be used solely as viewers of multidimensional data. In this way, OLAP clients are dedicated to generating and viewing reports and graphs of data stored in MDDBs. Users can run queries and generate multidimensional reports from any HTML-based
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The SAS OLAP Solution in a Tiered Environment

Data Warehouse

MDDB Server

Client

Reach Through

Request

Detail Feed

Data

requests. In this way, the MDDB server software provides dynamic cross-platform access to warehouse data across client/server networks.

browser without the need to run a SAS session on the client, because the reports and graphs on the client are HTML-based and because the storage and processing are provided by the server. Using the Web to deliver thin-client OLAP enables IT to reduce the costs of client/server management by centralizing data and applications on the server. Thus, the amount of time and money spent on distributing and upgrading applications can be greatly reduced. In addition, adding new OLAP users can be as simple as e-mailing them the address or Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the OLAP application. Users who already know how to use a Web browser can begin accessing OLAP applications immediately by entering the URL. Thereafter, users can access OLAP applications simply by selecting the name of an application from a pull-down menu of favorites or bookmarks. Adding Functionality to Web-Enabled Clients Although thin client is appropriate for many audiences, it may not provide all the functionality needed by some users. The determining factor is the predictability of the requests made by users. For example, in many cases, thin client capabilities can meet the needs of line managers and executives who know in advance the kind of information they seek. Because these users are interested primarily in predictable multidimensional query and reporting capabilities, MDDBs with the appropriate summary crossings can be built in advance, stored on the server, and made available via a Web browser. However, the totally thin-client approach does not meet the needs of all OLAP users. For example, business analysts who expect to do in-depth analyses may need additional client capabilities such as the ability to run SQL queries against the warehouse data and then use the results of those queries in other applications. In addition, to disseminate their findings, business analysts may expect tools that will enable them to publish their OLAP findings on the Web or corporate-owned intranet. Eventually, some users may come to expect these Web publications to include features such as interactive graphics and animation. For those users who require a wider range

of processing capabilities on the client, the SAS OLAP solution provides: A UNIX-based Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program that can incorporate SAS data into Web pages using SQL queries; An open interface to SAS data written in Java that conforms to the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API developed by Sun Microsystems; A SAS automation plug-in that can invoke SAS actions from a Web page; ActiveX support for OO-based Web applications; Web publishing tools including; HyperText Markup Language (HTML) tools that generate HTML-formatted, GIF and IMGGIF drivers that generate single images in the Graphics Interchange Format, A GIF animation driver to generate animated graphics, and An IMGJPEG driver to generate JPEG images.

OLAP Client Capabilities and Tools

The expectations of business executives and analysts using OLAP can change over time. What is today considered innovation in query and reporting capabilities tomorrow can become a part of normal operating procedures. The challenge for IT personnel is to find a solution with which they can empower users to explore, analyze, and report on their own. The best solution will provide users with OLAP capabilities and tools that are easy enough to use today and flexible enough to meet future needs. The SAS OLAP solution with its many client capabilities and tools provides the flexibility required to meet such a range of expanding expectations. The client capabilities and tools of the SAS OLAP solution cover the entire spectrum from simple viewing of data to sophisticated data visualization, analysis, and reporting including: An off-the-shelf Report Gallery that includes dragand-drop reports; A powerful EIS that includes reach through capabilities;

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 A modern applications development environment; Access to the vast analytical capabilities of the SAS System. A Gallery of Easy-to-use Reports For business executives and other users who are interested in simple viewing and reporting, the SAS OLAP solution provides a gallery of easy-to-use reports. These reports need no coding; they provide a wealth of off-the-shelf functionality including the ability to report on data from any source accessible to the SAS System simply by dragging and dropping an icon of the data on one of the report icons. Enterprise Information System For users who want to go beyond simple query and reporting to an environment that enables them to manage enterprise-wide information, the SAS OLAP solution includes a customizable EIS. The EIS software is an integrated component of the SAS System and provides a syntax-free environment for building userfriendly enterprise information systems. With the SAS OLAP solution, any client machine anywhere on the network can run EIS applications that are as easy to develop as they are to use. The SAS OLAP solution includes the following basic" EIS capabilities: Point-and-click menus with pull-down windows; Access to native host applications via ODBC; Data-sensitive drill down; What-if analyses; Exception reporting; Graphical display of critical success factors; Grouped bar charts. In addition, the software includes a wide range of business reporting objects that have been specifically optimized for uses with MDDBs. These reporting objects, which provide a choice of styles for dynamic display and interactive analysis, include: The 3D Business Graphics Report; The Map Chart; The Multidimensional Report; The Organizational Chart; The Graphical Variance Chart.
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The reporting objects have multiple levels with built-in drill-down capabilities for fast navigation through data. Using these objects and customizable viewers, OLAP users can: Intuitively navigate through volumes of data; Perform analyses, and row and column calculations at run time; Dynamically reach through to detail data anywhere on the network; Integrate multiple data sources into existing EIS applications; Establish inter-object communication. Applications Development Environment For applications developers, the SAS OLAP solution provides remarkably intuitive tools for generating customized EIS application, including developers toolkit that empowers application developers to build a range of information delivery systemsfrom simple to sophisticated. The toolkit includes: Easy-to-use menus; Fill-in-the-blank screens; An extensive help facility; Online documentation. The various processes that perform data access, management, analysis, and presentation have already been defined in the applications development environment and are listed as objects in a menu system. These objects include many of the SAS System's most popular applications development and presentation formats, such as block menus, list menus, business graphics, and variance reports, as well as commands that drive applications. Developers can make any object a part of any application. Convenient fill-in-the-blank screens make it easy to specify where to find data needed for an application. The data can reside anywhere on the network including data obtained by reaching through to the data warehouse, and the data can be in any form including SAS data sets, flat files, or data from leading database management systems.

Because the EIS capabilities of the SAS OLAP solution take advantage of object-oriented applications development (OOAD) technology, developers can use blocks of existing code to build new, customized applications. The ability to reuse code means that applications can be implemented in a consistent and efficient manner, which simplifies applications maintenance and updating. Ready-made objects that represent complete parts of applications can be assembled easily into complete systems without the need for programming. Reach Through to Detail Data All OLAP products are designed to present summarized data for online analysis. From the client side, business managers and other users expect an OLAP solution to let them view the summarized data from multiple perspectives. Summarizations in the MDDB are designed to satisfy most query and reporting needs. However, at times, users may drill down to the lowest level of detail within an MDDB and find they still need more data to perform further analysis. For those instances when more detailed data is needed than is contained in the MDDB, the SAS OLAP solutions graphical user interface enables users to drill out of the MDDB and to reach through to the individual transaction records in source relational databases. The source relational data can reside anywhere on the client/sever network. In this way, the MDDB acts as an engine for retrieving data dynamically from the data warehouse. Using the client GUI, business managers, analysts and other users can identify areas of interest in an MDDB, highlight those areas, and request the underlying details be returned to them without having to know where the detail data resides. The data can be returned to the users in a variety of forms including SAS data files or any other supported file structure. Users have transparent access to multiple data sources and can share that detailed data with others via tools such as Excel spreadsheets, Lotus Notes, and e-mail.

Access to SAS Analytical and Visualization Tools The flexibility and power of the SAS OLAP solution goes far beyond ordinary OLAP tools. Because the SAS OLAP client capabilities are fully integrated with the SAS System, business analysts and other users can extract data from any source including warehouse data as well as data from multidimensional analyses and make that data available to the world-renowned analytical and data visualization capabilities of the SAS System.

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References and Further Reading

Data Warehousing Building a SAS Data Warehouse, (SAS Institute White Paper, 1995)

SAS Institutes Rapid Warehousing Methodology, (SAS Institute White Paper, 1996) SAS Institute Web page http://www.sas.com/dw/

The SAS OLAP Solution A Formula for OLAP Success, (SAS Institute White Paper, 1996) SAS Institute Web page http://www.sas.com/OLAP/ Web Enablement An HTML Gateway for SAS Software, (SAS Institute Technology Overview, 1996) The Impact of Web Technology on Enterprise Decision Support Systems, (SAS Institute White Paper, 1996) SAS Institute Web page http://www.sas.com/web/

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Appendix: List of Stored and Derived Statistics

Statistic SUM N SUMWGT UWSUM NMISS USS MIN MAX AVG RANGE PCTN PCTSUM CSS VAR STD STDERR CV T PRT LCLM UCLM Description Sum Number of non-missing values Sum of the WEIGHT value Unweighted sum Number of missing values Uncorrected sum of squares Smallest value Largest value Arithmetic mean or average Range of values N percent of total Sum percent of total Corrected sum of squares Variance Standard deviation Standard error of the mean Coefficient of variation Test population mean is 0 Probability of T Lower confidence limit Upper confidence limit Type Stored by default Optionally stored Optionally stored Optionally stored Optionally stored Optionally stored Optionally stored Optionally stored Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived Derived

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OLAP Tools and Techniques within the SAS System was written by John McIntyre, Mark Moorman, and Johnny Williams. SAS is a registered trademark of SAS Institute Inc. indicates USA registration. DB2, IMS, and MVS are registered trademarks or trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Other brand and product names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright 1996 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC. All rights reserved. Credit must be given to the publisher. Otherwise, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher. 3242D.297

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