9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said computing device is configured to perform an operation on said retrieved data; said operation being selected from at least one member of the group consisting of joining, grouping, filtering and/or sorting said data and converting it into a format expected by an input query.
1. An apparatus configured to retrieve data from an Online Analytical Processing (“OLAP”) data source or MDX servers of other types, wherein said data source has associated meta-data, said apparatus comprising: a computing device; an application programming interface (“API”) configured to operate within said computing device; said API configured to receive a two-dimensional query written in a two-dimensional query language such that said query includes a sequenced list of requested columns wherein said sequenced list includes a mixed order of measure columns and dimensional columns; said computing device configured to convert said two-dimensional query into a multi-dimensional query which is compatible with a multi-dimensional query language such that said measure columns are separated from said dimensional columns; and, said computing device configured to retrieve data responsive to said multi-dimensional query.