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Dino
Dino

Reputation: 8292

Difference among Dimension, Dimension attribute and Facts

So from what I've understand the best example of differences in (Dimension, Dimension Attribute, and Fact) would be something like this:

Dimensions - PRODUCT, ACCOUNT, CUSTOMER

Dimension attribute - ProductName, ProductNumber, CustomerName, CustomerNumber

Facts - usually measures. Dollar, Unit, Height

This is my attempt so it may be wrong. I want to hear your solutions?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 8726

Answers (2)

Tutu Kumari
Tutu Kumari

Reputation: 503

Dimensions: are qualitative data. These are objects of the subjects.

Dimension attributes : These are columns of dimension table.

Facts : are the quantitative data. The data which can be summed up , averaged or manipulated. If manipulation is done in the data then it would be to provide business insights. Manipulated data eg : time dimension can't be measured but hours calculated using time is a measurable fact.

Example : Consider e commerce company table(amazon) which is Subject

  1. Dimensions:

    Product , date , customer , vendor , location(** these all are Objects of subjects**)

  2. Dimension attributes: 

     PRODUCT - (Product_id , Product_name , Product_class)
 DATE - (Order_date , Shipment_Date , Delivery_date)
 CUSTOMER - (Cust_id , Cust_name)
 LOCATION -(State , city , town , zip_code)

  3. Facts:

     PRODUCT - Total number of products sold 
 DATE -  Total number of products sold in last one month/ last one year / last one quater
 CUSTOMER - Total amount paid by customer
 LOCATION - Total sales done per region , per state , per city
          - Total traffic(customer visited) in stores per region

Upvotes: 3

Ashwin
Ashwin

Reputation: 164

A dimension is a collection of "reference information" about a measurable event. The Measurable event is a Fact.

So, if you have data say for example - Retail transactions, you would measure - transaction cost. So, your fact will have sales amount. Now, sales amount in itself does not make sense. You would need information like -

  1. When was the sale done - Date dimension
  2. Who made the transaction - Customer dimension
  3. Which store was it made from - Store Dimension
  4. What was brought - Product dimension

and so on. What information you want capture for each dimension is called the attributes. For Ex: A Customer dimension might have these attributes -

Customer Number
Customer Name
Customer Address
Customer Zip Code
Date Of birth
... and so on.

Upvotes: 4

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