System and method for determining driving factor in a data cube

• US 20090030915A1
• Filed: 07/25/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cognos Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Winter, Stewart James, Reid, Murray John, Westman, Randy Mark, MacCulloch, William Todd, Leikucs, Andrew Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,234,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

Method and system for determining a driving factor for a data value of interest in a multidimensional database, by collecting a context for the data value of interest in the multidimensional database. The data value of interest has dimensional levels with dimensional members outside the drill path of the data value of interest. The dimensional levels are enumerated in a list. A query using the dimensional members of the dimensional level is executed. A variance is calculated for the set of query results. A driving factor for the data value of interest is determined based on the variance. The driving factor is added to the context of the data value of interest.

Claims

1. A method for determining a driving factor for a data value of interest in a multidimensional database, the method comprising the steps of:

collecting a context for the data value of interest in the multidimensional database, the data value of interest having a plurality of dimensional levels outside a drill path of the data value of interest, each of the plurality of dimensional levels having dimensional members;

enumerating the plurality of dimensional levels in a list;

selecting a dimensional level from the list;

executing a query using the dimensional members of the dimensional level resulting in a set of query results;

calculating a variance of the set of query results; and

determining a driving factor for the data value of interest based on the variance.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of adding the driving factor to the context of the data value of interest.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of executing a query for each of the plurality of dimensional levels in the list, and calculating a variance for each of the plurality of sets of query results.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a subset of the list is used for executing a query step, further comprising the step of culling the list of the plurality of dimensional levels.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of outputting dimensional members for the driving factor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of outputting dimensional members for the driving factor in a cross-tabulation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating a variance determines the minimum and maximum values of the set of data values resulting from the query.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a new data value of interest;

removing levels involved with the new data value of interest from the list;

determining a new driving factor; and

adding the new driving factor to the context.

9. A business intelligence analysis system comprising a client and a server, the server responding to a query to a multidimensional database from the client, the system comprising:

means for collecting a context for the data value of interest in the multidimensional database, the data value of interest having a plurality of dimensional levels outside a drill path of the data value of interest, each of the plurality of dimensional levels having dimensional members;

means for enumerating the plurality of dimensional levels in a list;

means for selecting a dimensional level from the list;

means for executing a query using the dimensional members of the dimensional level resulting in a set of query results;

means for calculating a variance of the set of query results; and

means for determining a driving factor for the data value of interest based on the variance.

10. The business intelligence analysis system of claim 9, further comprising means for adding the driving factor to the context of the data value of interest.

11. The business intelligence analysis system of claim 9, further comprising means for executing a query for each of the plurality of dimensional levels in the list, and means for calculating a variance for each of the plurality of sets of query results.

12. A storage medium readable by a computer encoding a computer program for execution by the computer to carry out a method for determining a driving factor for a data value of interest in a multidimensional database, the computer program comprising:

code means for means for collecting a context for the data value of interest in the multidimensional database, the data value of interest having a plurality of dimensional levels outside a drill path of the data value of interest, each of the plurality of dimensional levels having dimensional members;

code means for enumerating the plurality of dimensional levels in a list;

code means for selecting a dimensional level from the list;

code means for executing a query using the dimensional members of the dimensional level resulting in a set of query results;

code means for calculating a variance of the set of query results; and

code means for determining a driving factor for the data value of interest based on the variance.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, further comprising code means for adding the driving factor to the context of the data value of interest.

14. The storage medium of claim 12, further comprising code means for executing a query for each of the plurality of dimensional levels in the list, and code means for calculating a variance for each of the plurality of sets of query results.