Patent ID: 7219093

Claim:
A method to be executed at least in part by a software program in a computing device for analyzing data in an N-dimensional native OLAP cube, comprising: submitting an (N+Q)-dimensional custom query, wherein N and Q are both positive numbers greater than zero; converting the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query into an N-dimensional query for submission to the N-dimensional native OLAP cube by: defining at least one custom hierarchy corresponding to dimensions specified in the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query that are not defined in the N-dimensional native OLAP cube, the custom hierarchy having an axis specified in the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query; identifying a common query axis for execution of the N-dimensional query, the common query axis including a native hierarchy and the custom hierarchy; defining calculated members in the N-dimensional query representing the custom hierarchy, corresponding to criteria of the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query and the native hierarchy on the common query axis; and organizing the calculated members according to the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query; receiving an N-dimensional result of the N-dimensional query; converting the N-dimensional result of the N-dimensional query into an (N+Q)-dimensional result of the (N+Q)-dimensional custom query; and providing the (N+Q) dimensional result of the (N+Q)-dimensional query.