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Data & Analytics · Foundational

Dimension Table

A table of descriptive attributes (who, what, where, when) used to filter, group and label facts.

Definition

Dimensions are wide, relatively short and denormalized. They contain a surrogate key, the natural key and descriptive attributes, often arranged in hierarchies such as Category > Subcategory > Product.

Example

DimCustomer(CustomerKey, CustomerID, Name, City, Segment)

Exam tip

If a column is used to slice or filter, it belongs in a dimension; if it is summed, it belongs in a fact.

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