A method and system for coping with slice and dice operations in data warehouses is disclosed. An external approach may be utilized, creating queries using structured query language on a computer. An algorithm may be used to rewrite the queries. The resulting predicates may be joined to dimension tables corresponding to fact tables. An internal approach may be utilized, using aggregation functions with early aggregation for creating the queries. The results of the slice and dice operations may be outputted to a user on a computer monitor.