Vendor Dimension

Guys I have a Vendor Dimension. The Business has a requirement to include the Category of the Vendor. For E.G. A single Vendor could be supplying Printing Equipment as well as Software. Basically one Vendor could be part of multiple categories. How do you handle such a situation. Do you modify the grain of the dimension table. I am not sure if thats a good idea. Thanks.

Make category its own dimension and build a vendor/category bridge table. It is a classic multivalued dimension.

Thank You!

That solves my problem.

Thanks. Since I am doing the bridge design for the first time I need more guidance. I understand that Vendor Category is a straight forward dimension but I am not sure how to create the bridge table. I have seen some examples where the bridge table has a group key. A little guidance in slightly more detail is highly appreciated.

I would not use a group key in this case. Just vendor key and category key should be sufficient. You consider groups if the population of the bridge is unbounded (such as diagnosis related to a doctor visit fact table) and size is an issue. In this case it is bound by the number of vendors. It is also an easier bridge to build.

Thank You!! You are absolutely right the number of Vendors is finite, data would grow but not that much. In a Health Care setting there could be several combinations of diagnosis for each patient and it becomes difficult to predict. Thanks for this insight. You Guys are doing a great job.