The Multi-dimensional Calculation Engine provides the calculation functionality that enables the user to create sophisticated analytical queries that execute efficiently. For example, queries that can show trends in the data by comparing results to previous time periods or to other groupings of the data such as product categories or geographic regions. The engine executes the analytical queries but also enables forecast and model trends to be constructed, and to run other “what if” types of examinations that are also commonly performed analytical operations. In addition, there is the SQL interface that enables tools to use regular SQL to query the analytic workspace. The SQL is transformed by the database to operate against the analytic workspace objects and the results returned as rows and columns by the SQL interface back to the SQL query.