What is the Difference Between OLAP and OLTP

The main difference between OLAP and OLTP is that the OLAP is an online analysis and data retrieving process for decision making while the OLTP is an online transactional system to control fundamental business tasks.

OLAP is an online analysis system that allows a user to easily extract and view data from various points of view. In other words, it allows the users to view different summaries of multi-dimensional data. Therefore, the users can extract information from large databases and analysis them to take business decisions. On the other hand, OLTP is a software that is capable of supporting transaction-oriented applications via the web. The common use of it is in financial transactions, retail sales, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Key Areas Covered

1. What is OLAP
     – Definition, Functionality
2. What is OLTP
     – Definition, Functionality
3. What is the Relationship Between OLAP and OLTP
     – Outline of Association
4. What is the Difference Between OLAP and OLTP
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

OLAP, Online Analytical Processing, OLTP, Online Transactional Processing

What is OLAP

OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing. It is a software that analyses data for business decisions. Moreover, it allows users to analyse information on multiple databases simultaneously. Thus, OLAP allows managers and analysts to get effective business insights. Also, they can execute complex queries to extract multidimensional data. It is also possible to execute the same query multiple times to extract and analyse data.

Using OLAP, a company can analyse sales of a product in two months and compare the results of the same product in the same months sold in some other location. Moreover, companies can analyze the most purchased items of the customer to create a web page with high purchased rate products.

What is OLTP

OLTP refers to Online Transactional Processing. It is a system that supports transaction-oriented applications in a 3 tier architecture. Also, it is used to manage the daily transaction of an organisation. Moreover, it records the current update, insertion, deletion while performing transactions.

Besides, OLTP queries are simple, short, and require minimum space and minimum time to process. However, an OLTP transaction failure can cause data integrity. Online air ticket booking, online banking, adding products to a cart in online shopping are some examples of using OLTP.

Relationship Between OLAP and OLTP

• OLTP system becomes the source of data for OLAP.

Difference Between OLAP and OLTP

Definition

OLAP is an approach to multi-dimensional analytical queries, used in business intelligence, reporting writing and data mining. OLTP is a class of systems that supports or facilitates high transaction-oriented applications. Thus, this explains the fundamental difference between OLAP and OLTP.

Full Form

Online Analytical Processing is the full form of OLAP while Online Transactional Processing is the full form of OLTP.

Main Objective

Another difference between OLAP and OLTP is their main objective. The main objective of OLAP is to perform analysis whereas the main objective of OLTP is to perform processing.

Characteristics

Moreover, OLAP is characterised by a large volume of data while OLTP is characterised by a large number of short online tractions.

Operations

Besides, OLAP uses select operations, but OLTP uses insert, update, and delete operations.

Response Time

Response time also raises a difference between OLAP and OLTP as OLTP responds faster than OLAP.

Normalization

There is also a difference between OLAP and OLTP in normalization. That is, the OLAP tables are not normalised while OLTP tables are normalised.

Data

While OLTP is the source of data for OLAP, OLTP uses original data. This is another major difference between OLAP and OLTP.

Data Integrity

Data integrity is another important difference between OLAP and OLTP. OLAP databases are not frequently changed, so data integrity is not affected. OLTP databases are changed frequently so it should maintain data integrity.

Query Type

Furthermore, OLAP uses complex queries while OLTP uses simple queries.

Usage

OLAP is used for planning and decision making while OLTP is used for controlling and running fundamental business tasks. This is also a major difference between OLAP and OLTP.

User Type

In addition, managers and data analysts use OLAP while database administrators and other database professionals use OLTP.

Conclusion

In brief, the main difference between OLAP and OLTP is that the OLAP is an online analysis and data retrieving process for decision making while OLTP is an online transactional system to control fundamental business tasks. Also, OLTP system becomes the source of data for OLAP.

Reference:

1. “What Is OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)? – Definition from WhatIs.com.” SearchDataManagement, Available here.
2. “What Is OLTP (Online Transaction Processing)? – Definition from WhatIs.com.” SearchDataCenter, Available here.

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