Abstract. A data cube is a popular organization for summary data. A cube is simply a multidimensional structure that contains in each cell an aggregate value, i.e., the result of applying an aggregate function to an underlying relation. In practical situat

266´ANDWUBARBARAWehavechosentoselectourmodelsfromamongthefollowingset:

Themodelwithoutanydimensionaleffects.Thatis,theonethatonlyincludestheγ. Thecompleteindependencemodelwithonlymain-effectsterms.Thatis,themodelthatincludestheγandγiA,γjB,.... Allthemodelswithallpossiblek-factoreffectsandnohigher-orderforms,where2≤k≤MAXLVL,withMAXLVLisapre-establishedvaluelessthanorequalton.

Allthemodelsweconsideraresaturated.Fromallthesemodelsweselectastartmodelwhichhasthebestcompressionratio:thatis,thefewestparametersandoutliers.Thisselectionisbyenumeration:wecomputetheparametersandtheoutliersforeachmodelandselectthebestamongthem.LetuscallthisstartmodelMs.

Wethentrytoimproveonthismodelbyusingaperturbationheuristic.Theheuristicconsistsofthreesteps,asfollows:

Backwardelimination:parethenumberofparametersandoutliersofthenewmodelwiththosefoundforMs,ifthenumberissmaller,continuedoingbackwardelimination(selectingthenextfactorwiththesmalleststandardvarianceandsuppressingit).Otherwisestop.Letusassumethebestmodelwe ndwithbackwardeliminationisMb.

Forwardselection:choosethefactorwiththebiggeststandardvarianceamongthefactorsnotpresentinMsandaddittoMs,toformanewmodel.Asbefore,comparethenumberofparametersandoutliersofthenewmodelwiththosefoundforMs,ifthenumberissmaller,continuedoingforwardselection.Otherwisestop.Letusassumethatthebestmodelwe ndwithforwardselectionisMf.

ComparetheperformanceofMbwiththatofMf,keepingthebestonebetweenthetwo.Accordingtoourexperience,althoughwemaynotgettheoptimalmodelfollowingthisheuristic,wedogetaverygoodapproximation.TheadvantageofthisheuristicisthatweonlyneedtoperformanumberofpassesoverthedatawearemodelingequaltoMAXLVLplusthenumberofforwardtries,plusthenumberofbackwardtries.Itisimportanttonoticethatwearemodelingthesubsetofdatacontainedinachunk,whichismuchsmallerthantheentirecorecuboidandusually tsinmemory.Noticethatifthisisthecaseforeverychunk,thenweonlyneedtobringeachcellinthecuboidoncetomemory.

2.3.Queryingtheapproximatecube

Arangequeryoverthecuboidcanbedecomposedastheunionofseveraldisjointqueries,eachspanningachunkinthecuboid.Thatbeingthecase,foreachoneofthedisjointsub-queriestherearetwopossibilities:

Thesub-querycompletelyincludesitsrespectivechunk.Inthiscase,theanswerofthesub-querycanbeimmediatelyobtainedfromthechunkdescription,whichcontainstheaggregatedvalueofallthecellsinthechunk.Noticethatthisvalueisfreeoferrorandthat