Introduction

Multidimensional Clustering (MDC), Materialized Query Tables (MQT), and Partitioning are the key techniques used for efficient data warehousing. We will elaborate on these topics in this chapter.

Since these are advanced topics, we will assume here that you have a basic knowledge of objects such as tables, indexes, and views, and their creation and maintenance as well. MDC is primarily intended for data warehousing and Decision Support Systems (DSS) environments, but can also be used in Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) situations. Combined with database partitioning, it delivers a scalable and effective solution, reduces performance problems and logging, and provides easier table maintenance.