Abstract: Modern data analysis has given birth to numerous grouping constructs and programming paradigms, 
way beyond the traditional group by. Applications such as data warehousing, web log analysis, streams monitoring 
and social networks understanding necessitated the use of data cubes, grouping variables, windows and MapReduce. 
In this paper we review the associated set (ASSET) concept and discuss its applicability in both continuous and 
traditional data settings. Given a set of values B, an associated set over B is just a collection of annotated data 
multisets, one for each bIB. The goal is to efficiently compute aggregates over these data sets. An ASSET query consists 
of repeated definitions of associated sets and aggregates of these, possibly correlated, resembling a spreadsheet document. 
We review systems implementing ASSET queries both in continuous and persistent contexts and argue for associated sets’ 
analytical abilities and optimization opportunities.