Relational & Multidimensional

• The relational database model uses a two-dimensional structure of

rows and columns to store data, in tables of records corresponding
to real-world entities.
• Tables can be linked by common key values.
• E.F. Codd first designed this model in 1970, while working for IBM,
and it's simplicity revolutionised database usage at the time.
• In the 1980s the power of computers had grown to the point
where these overheads were no longer a problem,
• Today relational database management systems (DBMS) are
available on local desktops, as well as large organisational database
management servers.
• The techniques of entity-relationship (ER) modelling and the
structuring of data in normalised tables have become popular with
trained database administrators and designers, who routinely use
relational DBMS to store huge volumes of organisational data with
very high transaction rates.
• Although deceptively simple to design and operate, relational
database simplicity for the end-user does fall down when it comes
to running queries.
• Accessing data from relational databases may require complex
joins of many tables and is distinctly non-trivial for untrained end-
users, who may be forced to hire IT professionals to structure such
queries in a query language, such as SQL.
• When queries of a writing nature are run, such as INSERT, DELETE
and ALTER TABLE, the consequences of getting it wrong are greatly
increased when they are employed on a live system environment.
• In a multi-dimension database system, the data is presented to
the user in such a way as to represent a hypercube, or multi-
dimensional array, where each individual data value is contained
within a cell accessible by multiple indexes.
• The ability to present data in such a top level view is unique to
multi-dimensional systems, and shows just how powerful these
systems can be.
• Of course a multi-dimensional system is not limited to three
dimensions
• When we go beyond that amount, it becomes more difficult to
present such structures in a pictorial view.
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