About OLAP DML Commands

OLAP DML commands work in much the same way as commands in other programming languages—the one exception is the looping nature of OLAP DML commands as discussed in "OLAP DML Statements Apply to All of the Values of a Data Object".

Many OLAP DML commands perform complex actions. Some of these commands are data definition commands like the AW command which you use to create an analytic workspace and the DEFINE command which you use to define objects within an analytic workspace. Other OLAP DML commands are data manipulation commands. For example, you can use the OLAP DML SQL command to embed SQL statements in an OLAP DML program in order to copy data from relational tables into analytic workspace data objects, or you can use the AGGREGATE command to calculate summary data. Additionally, the DEFINE, MAINTAIN, PROPERTY, SET (=) UPDATE, and AW commands are recognized by Oracle OLAP as events that can trigger the execution of OLAP DML programs. (See "Trigger Programs" for more information.)

Additionally, you can augment the functionality of the OLAP DML by writing an OLAP DML program for use as a command.