I love volleyball as much as I love data. However, as this is a blog about data, I’ll leave the theories I have related to setting the ball at the door and move forward on the topic of data. Believe it or not, you learned the basics of how a data warehouse works way back…
Category: Dimensional Design
What’s in a Name (Calculation)?
One of my favorite lines from Shakespeare is this iconic quote from Romeo and Juliet. Due to the feud between their families, the young couple is forced to debate the merits of the name each of them carries in regards to the rest of the attributes they each bring to the table. Before the reader…
Don’t Know Much About… NULL Values
The Best of Sam Cooke was the first CD I ever bought. One of my favorite songs on that CD, “Wonderful World“, begins with the iconic line “Don’t know much about history.” Through the rest of the song, Cooke sings about a number of the other things he “don’t know much about”. He then ends…
Shoot for the Star Schema!
The phrase “Shoot for the stars!” has long been associated with trying to achieve something thought impossible, with the idea that while you may not get all of the way there, by aiming for something grandiose, you will at least achieve more than if you set your goals at something easily accomplished. In more recent…
I’m Sorry, You’re Just Not My Type 1 Data…
Type 1 data is something you’ll hear frequently when talking about OLTP (OnLine Transactional Processing) systems, and it can be common within a data warehouse as well. What is it? Type 1 data is essentially a permanent “current record” within a dimension. When a change occurs to a dimensional record, the change overwrites the previous…
I’m Looking for More of a Type 2
We covered Type 1 Data in a previous article. So now that you know what Type 1 data is, what is Type 2? Also known as a slowly changing dimension (SCD), Type 2 dimensions simply are dimensional records that represent a unique value at a specific and unique point in time. The key advantage to this…
The Science Behind Joining to Type 2 Dimensions
At least it’s not rocket science, right?
Who’s On First?
The six basic questions every data warehouse should answer.
Rock the Data! 