4. A computer program product comprising: a computer readable medium; and program code on said computer readable medium that when executed by a processor provides the functions of: creating a number of materialized query tables (MQTs) within the database system; defining one or more database table specifications; receiving an incoming query at the database system; in response to the incoming query referencing a first subset of a set of tables, identifying an MQT with a definition query that references the set of tables, wherein said first subset includes one of: (a) a number of fact tables and a group of dimension tables; (b) a number of source tables and a group of dependent tables; and (c) a number of referencing tables and a group of referenced tables; determining when the MQT is a candidate match for the incoming query; identifying one or more candidate MQTs; selecting an optimal MQT from among the one or more candidate MQTs; when the MQT is identified as a candidate match for the incoming query, determining whether the MQT is a best match from among a number of candidate matches for the incoming query; and when the MQT is identified as the best match for the incoming query, rewriting the incoming query utilizing the MQT.
13. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein said database table specifications include one or more of the following: (1) a physical referential integrity constraint for a number of fact-to-dimension table joins and dimension-to-dimension table joins; (2) an informational referential integrity constraint for a number of fact-to-dimension table joins and dimension-to-dimension table joins; (3) a primary key of a table for a number of tables; (4) a number of functionally dependent relationships between a plurality of columns of a table for a number of tables within the database system; (5) one or more physical not-null table check constraints are defined for nullable foreign key columns within a referential constraint; and (6) one or more informational not-null table check constraints are defined for nullable foreign key columns within a referential constraint; wherein the column data of said foreign key columns are not null.