Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Visual On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP)

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 280 Accesses

Synonyms

Visual multidimensional analysis; Interactive visual exploration of multidimensional data

Definition

An umbrella term encompassing a new generation of OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) end-user tools for interactive ad-hoc exploration of large multidimensional data volumes. Visual OLAP provides a comprehensive framework of advanced visualization techniques for representing the retrieved data set along with a powerful navigation and interaction scheme for specifying, refining, and manipulating the subset of interest. The concept emerged from the convergence of BI (Business Intelligence) techniques and the achievements in the areas of Information Visualization and Visual Analytics. Traditional OLAP frontends, designed primarily to support routine reporting and analysis, use visualization merely for expressive presentation of the data. In the visual OLAP approach, however, visualization plays the key role as the method of interactive query-driven analysis. Comprehensive...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 2,500.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Eick S.G. Visualizing multi-dimensional data. ACM SIGGRAPH Comput. Graph., 34(1):61–67, 2000.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Hanrahan P., Stolte C., and Mackinlay J. Visual analysis for everyone: understanding data exploration and visualization. Tableau Software Inc., 2007. White Paper, http://www.tableausoftware.com/docs/Tableau_Whitepaper.pdf

  3. Keim D.A. and Krigel H.-P. VisDB: database exploration using multidimensional visualization. IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl., 14(5):40–49, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lee H.-Y. and Ong H.-L. A new visualisation technique for knowledge discovery in OLAP. In Proc. First Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 1997, pp. 279–286.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Maniatis A.S., Vassiliadis P., Skiadopoulos S., and Vassiliou Y. Advanced visualization for OLAP. In Proc. ACM 6th Int. Workshop on Data Warehousing and OLAP, 2003, pp. 9–16.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Mansmann S. and Scholl M.H. Exploring OLAP aggregates with hierarchical visualization techniques. In Proc. 2007 ACM Symp. on Applied Computing, 2007, pp. 1067–1073.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Mansmann S. and Scholl M.H. Extending visual OLAP for handling irregular dimensional hierarchies. In Proc. 8th Int. Conf. Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery, 2006, pp. 95–105.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rivest S., Bédard Y., and Marchand P. Toward better support for spatial decision making: defining the characteristics of spatial on-line analytical processing (SOLAP). Geomatica, 55(4):539–555, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Rosling H., Rönnlund A.R., and Rosling O. New software brings statistics beyond the eye. In Proc. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006, pp. 522–530.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Russom P. Trends in Data Visualization Software for Business Users. DM Review, May 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sifer M. A visual interface technique for exploring OLAP data with coordinated dimension hierarchies. In Proc. Int. Conf. on Information and Knowledge Management, 2003, pp. 532–535.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Stolte C., Tang D., and Hanrahan P. Polaris: a system for query, analysis, and visualization of multidimensional relational databases. IEEE Trans. Visual. Comput. Graph., 8(1):52–65, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Stoltec C., Tang D., and Hanrahan P. Multiscale visualization using data cubes. IEEE Trans. Visual. Comput. Graph., 9(2):176–187, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Techapichetvanich K. and Datta A. Interactive visualization for OLAP, Part III. In Proc. Int. Conf. on Computational Science and its Applications, 2005, pp. 206–214.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Tegarden D.P. Business information visualization. Comm. AIS, 1(1), 1999, Article 4.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Marc H. Scholl & Svetlana Mansmann

Authors
  1. Marc H. Scholl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Svetlana Mansmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Scholl, M.H., Mansmann, S. (2009). Visual On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP). In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_447

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation