Dimensional Data Model

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Ralph Kimball is a well-known author of data warehouse system concept and introduced “Dimensional Data Architecture” based on Fact and Dimension Technique.

Dimensional Data Model is a specialized adaptation of the Relational Data Model that used to stores and manages Enterprise Historical and Transactional Information in the Data warehouse.

Data warehouse is a Logical Collection of Information gathered from many different Operational Databases that helps to queries and analysis Enterprise Operation to take Management Decisions.

“Atomic” data is lowest level of detail that stored in the Data Marts based on Subjective of Enterprise Operation or Entity and then integrates Data Marts into Data Warehouse. This is called “Bottom to Top” Data warehouse Design Methodology.



In dimensional data model, every transaction data are decomposes and stores in “FACT” and “Dimension” data format. FACT table contains Composite Primary Key and Measurement data and Dimension table contains Foreign Key and Context data that refer the FACT table.

Typically, the FACT measurement data must be in numeric values that can be aggregated and the Dimension context data must be in character values that can be grouped to generate Analytical Report from Data warehouse.

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