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This is a glossary of commonly used data warehousing, database and UCSD specific terms. This list is not designed to be conclusive. If there are any glaring omissions or obvious falsehoods please report them to the address listed at the end of the page.
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- A -
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Additive Fact
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Additive facts are measurements in a fact table that are able to be added across all of the dimensions.
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alias
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A short substitute or "nickname" for a table name.
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ASCII
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American Standard Code for Information Interchange. An eight-bit code for character representation; includes seven bits plus parity.
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attribute
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A field represented by a column within an object (entity). An object may be a table, view or report.
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- B -
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Back End Tool
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A back end tool is a software application, typically resident on both the client and the server; that assists in the production data extract process. Compare with front end tool.
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browser
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A software application that is used to allow users to read an HTML document in a user friendly readable format. Two well known browsers are Mosaic and NetScape.
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- C -
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client
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A software application on your computer, which is used to extract or download some application, data or service from a host system.
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Client/Server architecture
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A 'networked' environment where a smaller system such as a PC interacts with a larger, faster system. This allows the processing to be performed on the larger system which frees the user's PC. The larger system is able to connect and disconnect from the clients in order to more efficiently process the data.
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Conforming Dimensions
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Conforming dimensions are dimensions that have exactly the same set of primary keys and same number of records. Two conformed dimensions can be combined into a single dimension by creating the union of the attributes.
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- D -
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Data Directory
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The Data Directory is a component of ACTs DataLink product. The Data Directory provides the descriptions of all databases, tables and fields used within DARWIN. A physical data model (also called a schema or entity-relationship diagram) is provided for each subject area within DARWIN and a subset of the SQL-DSE. A search option also exists that allows the ability to find all structures containing the data field of interest.
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DataLink
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DataLink is a web based product developed by UCSD's Data Warehouse team to provide detailed information about the data contained within its environment. Currently, information is provided for overall data, available SQL queries and data refresh history.
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DARWIN
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DARWIN (Data Repository and Windows to Information) is the primary data environment running on a Sun/Sybase server, with full data directory support, integrity checks and training classes.
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Data Mart
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A data mart is a subject oriented subset of data classically designed for ease of use.
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Degenerate Dimension
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A dimension key, such as an invoice number or a ticket number that has no attributes and hence has no actual dimension table.
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Denormalize
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To allow redundancy in a table so that the table can remain flat.
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dimensional modeling
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Dimensional modeling is a generally accepted practice in the data warehouse industry to structure data intended for user access, analysis and reporting in dimensional data models. They are specifically designed to meet the twin goals of ease-of-use and performance. Over the past five years, the use of dimensional models for data warehousing has become an industry standard. It is a well-proven technique that allows for fast retrieval of data and also helps the business users to understand the data easily. This is achieved because the models are developed based on how the business sees the data.
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entity
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A database object such as a table, view, report or screen.
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Entity Relation Model
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A model of an organization's data in which the objective has been to remove all repeated values by creating more tables.
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- F -
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Fact Table
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The central table in a star join schema characterized by a composite key, each of whose elements is a foreign key drawn from a dimension table.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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An acronym that refers to a text file on the internet that contains answers to frequently asked questions. FAQ's are a valuable resource for gaining knowledge on particular subjects of interest. FAQ's are compiled by subject matter.
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Foreign Key
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A field in a relational database table whose values are drawn from the values of a primary key in another table.
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Front End Tool
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A client tool that fetches or manipulates data stored on a relational database. Compare with back end tool.
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ftp
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File
Transfer
Protocol is the most common way to transfer files from one computer to another.
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Gigabyte
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One billion bytes.
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GQL
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Graphical
Query
Language is a graphical query tool used to access information stored in a SQL database. As a user, you may query the data, download data into your own environment and generate reports. GQL is a software product designed by Andyne.
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GUI
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GUI (pronounced gooey) stands for
Graphical
User
Interface.
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HTML
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HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, a subset of SGML, provides a tag set used to create an HTML document. The tags or elements tell the browser how to display the information. The tags are used to "mark," in a hierarchical format, the different components of the document.
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HTTP
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The HyperText Transfer Protocol is a fixed set of commands used during a hypertext link between a client and server.
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hyperlink
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A hyperlink is a logical link between two related pieces of information in the same document or between different documents. It will allow you to quickly jump from one document or location to another transparently. This is the "cool" part of HTML.
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Hypertext
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A hypertext document is a combination of text, links to other documents, sound, graphic images, and film clips.
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- I -
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IFIS
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Integrated Financial Information Systems is the central campus financial system that processes accounts payable, budget and staffing, chart of accounts, travel, purchasing, general accounting, express order systems.
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index
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An index is a link between one table and another, it allows for rapid access to the rows of a table based on the values of one or more columns in another table.
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Internet
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The internet is a network of networks linked together through low level protocols.
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ip address
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Every device on the network is assigned an address which is used for communicating from device to device.
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ISIS
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Integrated Student Information Systems is the central campus student system that processes academic history, accounts receivable, admissions, course catalog/schedue, facilities, grades, housing, registration, and student aid management systems.
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- L -
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Local Area Network (LAN)
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