Analyzing Sequential Data in Standard O...

Although nearly all data warehouses store sequential data, i.e. data with a logical or temporal ordering, traditional data warehouse or OLAP approaches fail when it comes to analyze those sequences. In this paper we will present a novel approach which generates query-specific subcubes, i.e. subcubes that consist only of data which fulfill a given sequential query pattern. These subcubes may then be analyzed using standard OLAP tools. Our approach consists of two functions which both return such subcubes. Hence, the user can still use all the well-known OLAP operations like drill-down, roll-up, slice, etc. to analyze the cube. Furthermore, this approach may be applied to all data warehousing architectures.