Constraints on Surrogate Keys?

What is the best practice for setting foreign key constraints in the dimensional model? Should I define the surrogate key as a primary key in the dimensions, and as a foreign key in the fact, or not?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

putting a foreign key on a fact table will help as it will put a check where the data from a dimensin will not be deleted by accident if it is being used in a Fact table. It may help in query performance only drawback when trying to insert in the fact it will slow down the performance.


thanks

Since you go through the bother of assigning surrogate keys, there is no point in enforcing FK relationships. However, it is sometimes useful to declare them (without enforcement) to aid the optimizer.

Under NO circumstances should you delete dimension rows without a process in place to also purge facts. In general, there is no benefit of deleting dimension rows under normal circumstances. You simply will not recover significant space to make much difference.