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Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension?

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Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension? Empty Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension?

Post  mpalmerlee Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:02 pm

I would like to create some summary tables that would summarize Monthly data. Should I use my existing Date Dimension and simply link to the first day of the month or should I create a new Month Dimension Table?

I know it would work either way but I'm looking for what is considered best practice, thanks,
-Matt

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Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension? Empty Re: Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension?

Post  ngalemmo Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:12 pm

Thats fine, pick a row, there is no need to create another table. It would be different if dealing with a very large dimension where you only need a few attributes due to the desired aggregation, in which case a much smaller junk dimension for those attributes would be a better choice.
ngalemmo
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Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension? Empty Re: Using the Date Dimension for Summary Fact Tables or new specialized Month Dimension?

Post  mpalmerlee Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:43 pm

Ok, that makes sense. At first it seemed cleaner to have a month dimension because it would be obvious to anyone using your fact table that the Date keys pointed to the whole month, but since you probably want summaries at a week, a quarter and a year too, it quickly becomes a pain to manage all these separate dimensions and probably just easier to pick something that makes sense in the existing table to maximize re-usability and flexibility.

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