Patent ID: 7464083

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of linking data sources in a multidimensional database using database joins, the method comprising: filtering join query attributes from a join query, the join query attributes including join query characteristics and join query restrictions; identifying one or more qualified aggregated data stores that contain all of the join query characteristics and join query restrictions, each of the one or more qualified aggregated data stores redundantly storing, in a multidimensional format, only a part of the multidimensional database based on aggregate filter values for single database characteristics of the multidimensional database that are specified in an aggregated data store definition for each of the one or more qualified aggregated data stores; selecting a smallest qualified aggregated data store out of the one or more qualified aggregated data stores for use in responding to the join query, the smallest qualified aggregated data store having a smallest number of data records of the one or more aggregated data stores; extracting a subset of the join query attributes that are relevant to the multidimensional database; generating a partial join query from the extracted subset of the attributes, the partial join query including database characteristics and database restrictions that are relevant to the multidimensional database; creating a one-dimensional database view of the multidimensional database based on the smallest qualified aggregated data store; executing the join query on the multidimensional database according to the one-dimensional database view; and answering the partial join query using the smallest qualified aggregated data store.