Patent ID: 6581068
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of executing commands in a computer to perform database operations on a multidimensional database in a memory, the method comprising the steps of:creating a multidimensional computer database; structuring data in said database as a series of accounts, each account configured to store either financial data or multimedia data; arranging said accounts into a hierarchy; facilitating communications using said database through subscriptions filed in said database by authorized users and through delegation of responsibility through data requests received from said users; joining dimensions of said database to facilitate navigation through said database; and aggregating data within a hierarchy of accounts to produce a report; wherein, a value of said data may be instantly retrieved in a real-time operation by a method comprising the steps of: (a) accepting a request for a value, uniquely identified by a combination of elements of the dimensions defined when creating the multi-dimensional database; (b) determining if said value is in a cache memory and, if so, jump to step (n), otherwise proceed; (c) determining if said value must be computed by a formula and, if so, jump to step (g), otherwise proceed; (d) determining if any of the elements of dimensions identifying said value is an aggregation node in a hierarchy and, if so, jump to step (j), otherwise proceed; (e) retrieving said value from the database; (f) jumping to step (m); (g) retrieving the value of all terms comprising said formula by applying the method currently described to each one; (h) computing said formula to produce said value; (i) jumping to step (m); (j) retrieving all the values associated with the dimension elements that compose said aggregation node(s), by applying the method currently described to each one; (k) computing an aggregated value; (l) jumping to step (o); (m) storing said value in the cache memory, and jumping to step (o); (n) retrieving said value from the cache memory; and (o) responding to said request for a value with said value.