DATA WAREHOUSING FUNDAMENTALS: A Comprehensive Guide for IT Professionals

GLOSSARY

Ad Hoc Query.

A query that is not predefined or anticipated, usually run just once. Ad hoc queries are typical in a data warehouse environment.

ADO.

ActiveX Data Objects. Microsoft's software interface mechanism for distributed Web applications.

Agent Technology.

A technology where specialized software modules act to produce desired results based on specified events. The software is structurally transparent to users.

Alert System.

A software system that notifies and alerts users when particular events take place, such as some business indicator exceeding a preset threshold value.

API.

Application Program Interface. A functional interface, usually supplied by the operating system, that allows one application program to communicate with another program for receiving services. APIs are generally implemented through function calls.

ASCII.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard code, consisting of a set of 7-bit coded characters, used for information exchange between computer and communication systems.

Bitmapped Indexing.

A sophisticated and fast indexing technique using the binary values of individual bits to indicate values of attributes in relational database tables. This technique is very effective in a data warehouse for low-selectivity data, that is, for attributes that have only a few distinct values.

BLOB.

Binary Large Object. Very large binary representation ofmultirnedia objects that can be stored and used in some enhanced relational ...