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Slice
The term slice in multidimensional terminology is used to define a member or a
group of members that are separated (from ALL other dimensions) and then
evaluated across all the dimensions. A member of a dimension means a value
inside a column. Slicing is slightly difficult to understand on a two-dimensional
paper. In order to understand the slicing concept, consider a dimensional model
example. Assume that we have only three dimensions named product, store,
and date in a simple dimensional model. In this simple dimensional model, we
just have one fact table with a fact called sales.
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Assume that we isolate three members from the product dimension. The three
members we isolated for the product dimension are soda, milk, and juice. This is
shown in Figure 4-8. If we measure the SUM of sales quantity for ALL stores and
for ALL dates across one or more members of one dimension (product in our
case), then this concept is called slicing. The arrow in Figure 4-8 shows that the
sum is across all dates and all stores.
This slice of the product dimension lets us to select our concerned members
(soda, milk, and juice) from the product dimension. The slicing of the members
allows us to focus only on these three members across all other dimensions.
This concept is called slicing.
(For ALL Stores and Dates)
Product
Soda
Milk
Juice
Total
Sales in USD
2,530
3,858
15,396
21,784
The slice in Figure 4-8 shows that soda generates the smallest sales amount,
milk second, and juice third.
Note: When you slice, you choose one or more members of a dimension and
consolidate (or summarize) across all other dimensions (in our example, the
other dimensions were store and date.)
Dice
The dicing concept means that you put multiple members from a dimension on
an axis and then put multiple members from a different dimension on another
axis. This allows you to view the interrelationship of members from different
dimensions.
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words, we are able to see the relationship between CA and dates 1/1/2005,
1/2/2005, 1/3/2005, and vice versa.
LA
Figure 4-9 Dice for store and date
Milk
LA
Figure 4-10 Dice of store and product dimension
In this example, we can see the interrelationship between the members of the
store and product dimensions. Here we analyze:
How each store contributes to total sales amounts for each product (Soda,
Milk, and Juice).
How a particular product contributes to total sales for each store location.
Note: You dice when you choose one or more members of same dimension
on one axis and on the other axis you choose a member or members from
another dimension. Now you can analyze interrelationships of those
dimensions.
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4.5.2 Pivoting
Pivoting in multidimensional modeling means exchanging rows with columns
and vice versa. Figure 4-11 on page 90 shows an example of pivoting. We
exchange the store rows with columns of the product dimension members. It is
simply a quick way to view the same data from a different perspective.
Milk
LA
Piv
o
LA
Milk
Note: You pivot when you exchange the axes of the report.
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LA
Beverage ->Group
LA
Milk
Note: We consider drilling up and drilling down when we want to analyze the
subject at different levels of detail. Drilling is possible if a dimension contains a
multiple level hierarchy.
Another example of drill-down is shown in Figure 4-13 on page 92. Here we drill
down from total sales in the US to sales at a particular store in Buffalo.
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4.5.4 Drill-across
Drill-across is a method where you drill from one dimension to another. You must
define the drill-across path. This function is often used in ROLAP. In Figure 4-14,
you see the result of drill-across from store CA to the product dimension. The first
chart depicts the sales in stores in three different states. And, in particular, we
have focused on CA (California).
LA
CA
Product
Milk
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By drilling across to the product dimension, we can see the details about which
products comprised the sales for the store CA.
Roll-Up
Roll-Down
Milk
Roll-up is exactly opposite to roll-down. The arrows in Figure 4-15 show the roll
directions. The roll-up concept is the same as drill-up.
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