Revising aggregation hierarchies in OLAP: a rule-based approach

Enhancing multidimensional database models with aggregation hierarchies allows viewing data at different levels of aggregation. Usually, hierarchy instances are represented by means of so-called rollup functions. Rollups between adjacent levels in the hierarchy are given extensionally, while rollups between connected non-adjacent levels are obtained by means of function composition. In many real-life cases, this model cannot capture accurately the meaning of common situations, particularly when exceptions arise. Exceptions may appear due to corporate policies, unreliable data, or uncertainty, and their presence may turn the notion of rollup, composition unsuitable for representing real relationships in the aggregation hierarchies. In this paper we present a language allowing augmenting traditional extensional rollup functions with intensional knowledge. We denoted this language IRAH (Intensional Redefinition of Aggregation Hierarchies). Programs in IRAH consist in redefinition rules, which can be regarded as patterns for: (a) overriding natural composition between rollup functions on adjacent levels in the concept hierarchy; (b) canceling the effect of rollup functions for specific values. Our proposal is presented as a stratified default theory. We show that a unique model for the underlying theory always exists, and can be computed in a bottom-up fashion. Finally, we present an algorithm that computes the revised dimension in polynomial time, although under more realistic assumptions, complexity becomes linear on the number of paths in the hierarchy of the dimension instance. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.