On defining on-line analytic processing formulations

Recently there has been increasing interest in On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) to satisfy the organizational needs of high-level information delivery and advanced data analysis. The actual application of OLAP tools involves the use of various functions, such as the common drilling down and slicing and dicing. Usually each particular OLAP function is comprehensive and intuitive. However, sophisticated use of OLAP tools requires complicated combinations of different OLAP functions that are not straightforward for end users or designers. In this paper we attempt to enumerate and formally define OLAP functions by defining a new OLAP model that provides a broader view of OLAP. We demonstrate the expressive adequacy of the new OLAP model with application examples.