The aim of this page is to provide a glossary of common OLAP and data warehousing terms and expressions. This list is for all terms beginning with e

EIF

EIF is shorthand for Express Interchange Format. This is a specific type of file created by the OLAP option via the EXPORT OLAP DML commmand. You can export an entire workspace, several workspace objects, a single workspace object, or a portion of a workspace object. Then you can import the information into a different workspace within the same Oracle database or a different one. For Express Server customers this was the method used to provide backups for their databases, however, with Oracle OLAP this backup process has been replaced by normal database procedures. EIF files are still a good mechanism to use for customers who wich to move data to a new location without wanting to completely reload a cube.
See also Export and Import

EIFVERSION

The EIFVERSION option is used with theEXPORT (to EIF)andIMPORT (from EIF)commands to copy data between different versions of Express® Server or Oracle OLAP. The version from which the data is exported is referred to as the source. The version to which the data is imported is referred to as the target.
Before you use the EXPORT command to export data to an EIF file, you use the EIFVERSION option to specify the internal version or build number of the target. Then, when you use EXPORT to copy data from the source to an EIF file, the data will be in a format that can be imported by the target. Generally, you can import data from an EIF file into any target that has a later version number than the one you specify for the EIF file with EIFVERSION. However, when you set EIFVERSION to a value that is lower than the default version (that is, the version number of the current process), and you try to export data that the earlier version cannot manage, an error is generated. For example, when you try to export an aggmap to a 6.2 version of Express Server, an error is generated because Express Server 6.2 cannot manage aggmap.
Note, in some cases you may have to explicity set the NLS_CHARSET to ensure compatability with the target schema settings.

You can use the EVERSIONfunction to determine the internal version or build number of the target.

Embedded total

A list of dimension members at all levels of a hierarchy, such that the aggregate members (totals and subtotals) are interspersed with the detail members. A relation between the embedded-total dimension and itself, called a "parent relation," specifies the arrangement of the hierarchy. For each value of the dimension, the parent relation contains the value that is immediately above it in the hierarchy (that is, its "parent" value). For example, a Geography dimension might contain dimension members for Cities, Areas, and All Areas as can be seen here:

GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHY_PARENTREL
---------- -------------------
Level 1 -> Totalus NA
2 -> East Totalus
3 -> Boston East
3 -> Newyork East
2 -> South Totalus
3 -> Atlanta Southwhere Level 1 = All Areas, Level 2 = Areas and Level 3 = Cities.

This term is also applied to fact tables that contain more than aggregate values above the leaf level. In Oracle OLAP, a cube can be queried using normal SQL commands via a view. This view returns all levels aggregations within the cube across all dimensions. The SQL itself does not to define the aggregator or use a GROUP BY element since all the required values can be returned by the cube itself. Hence, this type of view is sometimes referred to as an embedded total view.

Eversion

The EVERSION function returns a text value that specifies the internal Oracle OLAP build number. The following statement produces output from the EVERSION function:
show eversion

Oracle OLAP Build 80020

Export

The EXPORT command copies workspace objects from your analytic workspace to an external file, called an EIF file. You can use EXPORT to copy both data and object definitions from your workspace to an EIF file, or you can use it to copy an OLAP DML worksheet object to a spreadsheet file. The syntax of the EXPORT command is different depending on whether it is being used to produce an EIF file or a spreadsheet file, two separate entries are provided:

• EXPORT (to EIF)
• EXPORT (to spreadsheet)

EXPORT (to EIF) is commonly used in conjunction withIMPORT (from EIF) command. You export objects from the source workspace to an EIF file and then import the objects from the EIF file into the target workspace. The source and target workspaces can reside on the same platform or on different platforms. When you transfer an EIF file between computers, use a binary transfer to overcome file-format incompatibilities between platforms. The EIF file must have been created with theEIFVERSIONset to a version that is less than or equal to the version number of the target workspace. SeeEIFVERSIONfor information about verifying the target version number.
One reason forusing the EXPORT is to move your data to a new location. The EXPORT commandis also able to remove extra space from your analytic workspace after you have added and then deleted many objects or dimension values. To do this, issue anEXPORTstatement to put all the data in an EIF file, create another workspace with a different name, and then use anIMPORTstatement to import the EIF file into the new workspace. When you have imported into the same database, you can delete the old workspace and refer to the new one with the same workspace alias that you used for the original one.

To create an export file, the user executing the export must have write access to a database directory object.

See also EIF and Import

Expression

A combination of one or more values (typically provided by a measure or a calculated measure), operators, and functions that evaluates to a value. An expression generally assumes the data type of its components. The following are examples of expressions, whereSALESis a measure:SALES,SALES*1.05,TRUNC(SALES). Oracle OLAP has a very powerful calculation engine that provides a huge set of built in functions:

• Text Functions
• Date and Time Functions
• General Numeric Functions
• Financial Functions
• Statistical Functions
• Time-Series Functions
• Aggregation Functions
• Data Type Conversion
  

These functions can also be extened using OLAP DML to create custom functions. The engine itself can join cubes that are based on different dimensionality as seen here:




Many of the BI tools that support Oracle OLAP, including Analytic Workspace Manager, use the OLAP Calculation wizard to quickly and easily create the types of analytics business users require. These tempates create expressions within the analytic workspace.