DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DBMS) EMPLOYING A RELATIONAL DATASTORE AND A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATABASE (MDDB) FOR SERVICING QUERY STATEMENTS IN A MANNER TRANSPARENT TO CLIENT MACHINE

A database management system (DBMS) for servicing query statements through one or more client machines. The DBMS comprises a query interface adapted to receive query statements from the client machines. The query handling mechanism (i) receives each request from the query interface, (ii) extracts a set of dimensions associated with the request, (iii) uses the dimensions to retrieve aggregated fact data from a multi-dimensional database (MDDB), and (iv) forwards retrieved aggregated fact data to the query processing mechanism for subsequent processing. When the query processing mechanism determines that servicing of one or more query requests require data stored in the relational tables, then the query processing mechanism automatically routes the requests to the relational data tables, so that data can be accessed from the relational tables and forwarded to the query processing mechanism for use in servicing the requests, in a manner transparent to the client machine.