Kimball Forum
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Degenerate Dimensions

2 posters

Go down

Degenerate Dimensions Empty Degenerate Dimensions

Post  memphis Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:59 pm

Hi there,

I have come across a situation where my Fact table contains a degenerate 'Claim Number' column. This is fine, but I have discovered that some of the incoming data to populate my fact table do not have a claim number. How should I handle this situation? I don't want to fill my fact table with 'N/A', are there any other suggestions to handle this?

Thanks.

memphis

Posts : 19
Join date : 2010-10-21

Back to top Go down

Degenerate Dimensions Empty Re: Degenerate Dimensions

Post  ngalemmo Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:26 am

Depends on which database system you are using.

If it is Oracle, it will interpret a blank value as null, which messes up joins if you are combining data from multiple facts with claim number as one of the dimensions. So, you should set it to some constant... "N/A", "?" or whatever the business suggests.

Other database systems would allow you to set it to "" or " " and not interpret it as null. In which case it doesn't matter.
ngalemmo
ngalemmo

Posts : 3000
Join date : 2009-05-15
Location : Los Angeles

http://aginity.com

Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum