Patent ID: 7647356

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for updating a database using a multi-dimensional data model in which data corresponding to the database are organized in multi-dimensional blocks, each block having summary information associated therewith corresponding to a current state of evolution of the associated block, the method comprising: maintaining dependency information in the data model which identifies data dependencies within and among the blocks; maintaining a temporally sequential log of change information which identifies first changes and second changes made to particular ones of the blocks and times at which the changes were made wherein the change information comprises a list of change list entries, each change list entry comprising a change list number and identifying one of the changes and wherein the summary information associated with each block comprises one of the change list numbers which corresponds to the current state of evolution of the block; and updating the database with reference to the dependency information, the summary information, and the change information wherein updating includes determining a sequence in which the first changes and the second changes were committed to the underlying database based on the temporally sequential change information, applying the change information to the database in order of the determined sequence, including generating a dependency list of data changes whose data depends directly or indirectly from the prior changed data changes, and processing the data changes in the dependency list in accordance with a dependency update algorithm to update the data changes in the dependency list.