Topic: data-warehouse
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Slowly changing dimensions: overwrite, add a row or add a column
When a dimension attribute changes (a customer moves, a product is reclassified), type 1 overwrites and loses history, type 2 adds a new row with effective and expiry dates and a current flag under a new surrogate key, and type 3 keeps the previous value in an extra column. Snapshot tools implement type 2 by comparing an update timestamp or a set of columns on each run.
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Star schema basics: facts, dimensions and declaring the grain
A star schema stores measurements in fact tables and descriptive context in dimension tables linked by keys; the design starts by declaring the grain, what one fact row represents, because every measure and dimension must be consistent with it. Fully additive measures sum across any dimension, semi-additive ones not across time, and ratios must be stored as their components.
Machine-readable: JSON