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Data Modeling with a Time Dimension

Would it be better to create a time dimension with hh:mm:ss altogether or would it be better to split them up into 3 dimensions since separately they will take up less space?

What would you recommend and why?

Solution

  • What I ended up doing was just creating a separate time dimension with a row for each possible combination of hour, minute, and second.

    I did this vs creating 3 separate tables for hours, minutes, and seconds each to keep the number of joins down and not make the database too clustered with tables.

    I kept it separate from my date table to keep the number of rows down and making performance slower.

    Seems to work pretty well, thanks for the feedback everyone.