84 IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes
4.8 Multi-grain fact scenarios
A common modeling problem is multi-granularity, which occurs when levels of dimensional
detail for facts differ. In your data source, the level of information in a dimension can be more
precise than fact data of some fact tables in which the dimension takes part.
For example, a time dimension can have dimension information for the levels of year, quarter,
month, and day. For a Sales fact table, the facts exist at the day level. For a fact table with
planned sales values, the fact grain or level is probably at a higher level of detail such as
month.
This difference in fact grain can make it difficult to plan queries correctly if a report user
included a level below the fact grain in ...