Patent ID: 6847973
Filing Date: 2005-01-25
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of managing a slowly changing dimension of a dimensional database, said dimensional database comprising at least one dimension table, said dimension having at least one attribute, said dimension table containing dimensional records, each record comprising values of a key and of the attributes of the dimension, said method comprising the steps of: a. providing a dimension template, said dimension template assigning a behavior to each attribute of the dimension; b. providing a dimension update record for the dimension table; c. adding the update record to the dimension table if no record matching the value of the key of the update record is found in the dimension table; or d. rejecting the update record if a record matching the value of the key and all attributes of the update record is found in the dimension table; or e. updating the dimension table using the values of attributes of the update record if a record matching the value of the key but not all attributes of the update record is found in the dimension table, wherein the dimension table is updated in accordance with the behavior assigned to the attributes of the dimension in the dimension template.