Free Business Intelligence Practice Tests - Online Analytical Processing
The ability of system to interpret the same data in more then one form is known as multidimensional analysis. In actual the data is the same, just the view to interpret the data changes. It is a complex process, and expert’s analyst is used to conduct this process. Using OLAP system, the analysis time reduces and the efficiency of data analysis increases.
Let’s understand it with a simple example.
Number of sales of bike by a single automobile company in several years is single dimensional data (longitudinal data).
Number of sales of bike by several automobile companies in single year is single dimensional data (cross-sectional data).
But the Number of sales of bikes by several automobile companies in several years is a multidimensional data.
Now, you can understand the first two lines of this section very effectively, the data in all three cases is same. We are considering the sales of bike only, but in every case, the view by which we analysis data changes.