Authors:
Ali Salem
1
;
Faiza Ghozzi
2
and
Hanene Ben-Abdallah
3
Affiliations:
1
Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia
;
2
Institute Superior of Informatics and Multimedia of Gabes,University of Gabes, Tunisia
;
3
Faculty of Economics and Management of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia
Keyword(s):
Multi-dimensional model, OLAP, Constraints, Meta-Model, formal Specification, Hierarchy.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Data Warehouses and OLAP
;
Databases and Information Systems Integration
;
Enterprise Information Systems
Abstract:
The quality of a data mart (DM) tightly depends on the quality of its multidimensional model. This quality dependence motivated several research efforts to define a set of constraints on the DM model/schema. Currently proposed constraints are either incomplete, or informally presented, which may lead to ambiguous interpretations. The work presented in this paper is a first step towards the definition of a formal framework for the specification and the verification of the quality of DM schemas. In this framework, the quality is expressed in terms of both the syntactic well-formedness of the DM schema as well as its semantic soundness with respect to the DM instances. More precisely, this paper first formalizes in Z the constraints pertinent to the hierarchy concept; the formalization is treated at the meta-model level. Secondly, the paper illustrates how the formalization can be instantiated and the constraints are verified for a particular sample model through the theorem prover Z\ev
es.
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