In accordance with an embodiment, the system provides support for large queries in a multidimensional database computing environment. A kernel-based data structure, referred to herein as an odometer retriever, or odometer, that manages pointers to data blocks, contains control information, or otherwise operates as an array of arrays of pointers to stored members. When used with a dynamic flow, the approach enables the system to be used, for example to handle grid queries, Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) queries, or other types of queries in which the potential size of the query can be up to 264 bits.