Patent ID: 8069146

Claim:
A computer-readable memory having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement a method for updating a database using a multi-dimensional data model in which data corresponding to the database are organized in multi-dimensional data blocks, each data block having summary information associated therewith corresponding to a current state of evolution of the associated data block, the method comprising: maintaining dependency information in the data model which identifies data dependencies within and among the data blocks; maintaining a list of change entries which identifies changes made to particular ones of the data blocks and times at which the changes were made; receiving a request to apply a change entry to a data block; applying the change entry to the data block, including generating a dependency list of data blocks whose data depends directly or indirectly from the updated data block; processing the data blocks in the dependency list in accordance with a dependency update algorithm to update the data blocks in the dependency list, wherein processing the data blocks includes identifying blocks based on the dependency list that have user input values and ensuring that the user input values are not overridden by derived values; and updating the database with reference to the dependency information, the summary information, and the list of change entries.