Chapter 3. Building a cube model in DB2 67
3.1.3 Star and snowflakes characteristics
Whatever the layout is, here are the most important characteristics for a star or
snowflake design:
A large fact table that can be in the order of millions of data rows. It contains
the atomic or lowest level of detail, which may be a sales transaction, a phone
call, a reservation, a customer service interaction – whatever represents the
most granular fact of business operation which is meaningful for analysis.
Small dimension tables containing a finite number of descriptions and detail
information for codes stored in the fact table.
Use of primary and foreign keys
Measures in the fact table
Fact table with multiple joins connecting to other tables
In ...