DATABASE SYSTEM AND METHOD

A transformation description language (TDL) for specifying how data is to be manipulated in a data warehousing application. The TDL is comprised of a source for storing raw data, one or more transformation objects for processi ng the raw data according to predefined instructions, and a target for storing the processed data. A mapping is used for directing the data flow between th e I/O ports corresponding to the source, the plurality of transformation objects, and the target. The mapping specifies the connectivity between the source, transformation, and target objects as well as the order of these connections. There are a number of different transformations which can be performed to manipulate the data. Some such transformations include: an aggregator transformation, an expression transformation, a filter transformation, a lookup transformation, a query transformation, a sequence transformation, a stored procedure transformation, and an update strategy transformation.