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ssasdata-warehousebusiness-intelligencedimensional-modelingstar-schema

Customer Dimension as Fact Table in Star Schema

Can Dimension Table became a fact table as well? For instance, I have a Customer dimension table with standard attributes such as name, gender, etc.

I need to know how many customers were created today, last month, last year etc. using SSAS.

I could create faceless fact table with customer key and date key or I could use the same customer dimension table because it has both keys already.

Is it normal to use Customer Dimension table as both Fact & Dimension?

Thanks

Solution

  • Yes, you can use a dimension table as fact table as well. In your case, you would just have a single measure which would be the count - assuming there is one record per customer in this customer table. In case you would have more than one record per customer, e. g. as you use a complex slowly changing dimension logic, you would use a distinct count.