Microsoft Power BI Complete Reference

Role-playing tables

A role-playing table is a table that can play multiple roles, and this helps to reduce data redundancy. Most often, the Date table is a role-playing table. For example, the FactInternetSales table has three dates to track the processing of an order. There is the Order Date, Ship Date, and Due Date and, without role-playing tables, you would need to have three separate date tables instead of just one. The additional tables take up valuable resources, such as memory, as well as add an extra layer of administrative upkeep.

Each of these dates is very important to different people and different departments within an organization. For example, the finance department may wish to see total sales and profit by the date that a ...