kimball date dimension spreadsheet

It is because very often companies have special calendars and doing it in scripts would be very difficult for instance bank holidays (example in UK there is extra bank holiday that was announced last year!) I’m still pretty green to SSAS/Kimball, but the approach (create in Excel, load to SQL) I used was a major pain in the posterior. Thank you very much. Also, unlike the calendar day dimension, there are very few descriptive attributes for the specific minute or second within a day. They used an Excel spreadsheet, then a SQL Server Integration Services package to read the Excel file and load the date dimension table. -- begins in July of 2009, put a -6. I’ve tried DATENAME(ww, @FiscalCounter) but it doesn’t work as it doesn’t handle end of months properly. There are three methodologies for slowly changing dimensions. Which are, effectively, the … , NULL I didn’t really see the need for an audit key for a date table, so I changed it to an identity column so I could have a secondary surrogate key if I needed it, just something to count the number of date rows easily and track the order they were inserted in. given that these cannot (should not?) Typically, on a BI project, if you ask a business user, ‘what do you want’ you will get one of 2 responses. Ralph Kimball is the founder of the Kimball Group and Kimball University where he has taught data warehouse design to more than 10,000 students. -- it will simply produce errors if you attempt to insert duplicates. ( Log Out /  How would you go about calculating Fiscal Week? Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Kimball’s data warehousing architecture is also known as data warehouse bus . Also, what was the point of inserting a single row filled with nulls and ‘unknowns’? Holidays, work days, fiscal periods, week numbers, last day of month flags, and other navigational attributes must be embedded in the calendar date dimension and all date navigation should be implemented in applications by using the dimensional attributes. -- These two counters are used in our loop. /*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ My complaint though was not so much with the layout itself, I liked it and found it fairly complete. It is one of the only dimensions that is completely specified at the beginning of the data warehouse project. Remember that the foreign key in a fact table can never be null, since by definition that violates referential integrity. The calendar date dimension has some very unusual properties. ', 'Fiscal month of year (1..12). In it he mentioned using Dim and Fact schemas, thus you’d have [Dim]. I liked the idea as it was something I’d been considering myself, so in this version that is what I did. An excellent article – and this code is just the sort of thing I was looking for! di data warehouse dimensionali proposte da Ralph Kimball The Data Warehouse Toolkit ... Atomic business process dimensional models (aka Data Marts) with aggregate navigation ... spreadsheets, documents, and presentations • Authentication and authorization data "year", "month", "is_leap_year"), etc. *, -- Increment the date counter for next pass thru the loop, -- turn the annoying messages back on You can easily go back and add more dates by just adjusting the begin and end times. Saved a lot of time for me. The program operates on data entered in cells of a table. Here we are presented with a list of the columns in the Customer dimension with the accompanying descriptions entered into the Kimball Requirements Spreadsheet as well as the data type which was pulled directly out of the SQL Server Catalog. The best way to generate the calendar date dimension is to spend an afternoon with a spreadsheet and build it by hand. Since the mid-1980s, he has been the data warehouse and business intelligence industry’s thought leader on the dimen-sional approach. It also doesn’t have a conventional source. Plus after that time changes may be made to both Excel and SSIS that make that solution no longer workable. I assumed that as popular as the Kimball method is, someone would have already created a routine to load their style of date dimension, but some Binging and Googling around proved fruitless. Change ). -- You can however adjust the Begin/End dates and rerun to safely add The Kimball Approach. In this interesting case, it is not useful to make a dimension with the minutes or seconds component of the precise time stamp, because the calculation of time intervals across fact table records becomes too messy when trying to deal with separate day and time-of-day dimensions. -- Select all rows inserted for the final year as a sanity check, 'CREATE SCHEMA [Dim] AUTHORIZATION [dbo]', 'Date dimension contains one row for every day, beginning at 1/1/2000. be null. ( Log Out /  It is one of the only dimensions that is completely specified at the beginning of the data warehouse project. Check out his first book Data Warehouse Toolkit where he talks about time dimension. The calendar date dimension has some very unusual properties. Thus you may be faced with the headache of creating the sheet then figuring out how to get it to a location the server can read. -- Hold our dates, -- Holds a flag so we can determine if the date is the last day of month, -- Number of months to add to the date to get the current Fiscal date. Other dimensions are often populated from imperfect source systems, including the least perfect of all: the spreadsheet. A data modeler must plan for conformance in their design by ensuring that key dimensions of the enterprise are conformed dimensions that can be expanded to include new attributes over time. Virtually every fact table has one or more time related dimension foreign keys. I know it’s possibly a small point, but when you’re measuring Fact tables in tens of millions of rows, those extra 4 bytes start to become significant. Kimball requires a generalist team to implement. I did find some code for loading some very simple date dimensions, but nothing as complete as the Kimball design. -- new dates to the table every year. -- turn off all the 1 row inserted messages In some fact tables time is measured below the level of calendar day, down to minute or even second. You need at least one of these special records in the calendar date table, but you may want to distinguish several of these unusual conditions. We give all the properties of the database in the workbook and use a macro to generate the script based on the given properties. The best way to generate the calendar date dimension is to spend an afternoon with a spreadsheet and build it by hand. I want everything. Code Sample 2 – Modified Kimball code to create a Date dimension. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Ten years worth of days is less than 4000 rows. In fact he implies that a date object probably would be used for the time key. One of the most common aspects of any Data Warehouse is a Date Dimension, facts almost always have a date and time component and will likely have a foreign key to the date dimension table. It can also be quite a headache to go back several years from know and find both SSIS packages and that Excel spreadsheet. Using the Kimball Data Warehouse Modeling Tool in an agile setting supporting regular builds and integrated testing with work a rounds to cover non-SQL Server systems. Thanks fella, very useful. Yet weaknesses exist in the Kimball approach that make it difficult to rapidly extend or interrelate here is a great code exampe and almost all you can muster is a thanks and then a rant about your short commings with other peoples codes. – OnlineSalesChannel (use -2 when its a store sale which clearly will never have an online sales channel type / code). Many thanks. I’m a big fan of the Kimball method of Data Warehousing. Hi all, I'm about to design a Time/Date Dimension (on Day level) for a customer and I'm convinced of doing it the Kimball way is as close as perfect you could get (ie creating a spreadsheet … -- Set this to the number of months to add to the current date to get Measurements are defined at specific points of time and most measurements are repeated over time. There are two prominent architecture styles practiced today to build a data warehouse: the Inmon architecture an… These two fields comprise the natural key of the dimension table. Much appreciate this post – saved me so much time today on new data warehouse project! One of the most common aspects of any Data Warehouse is a Date Dimension, facts almost always have a date and time component and will likely have a foreign key to the date dimension table. It was really helpful. In the latest book, they provide a Date Dimension Spreadsheet which is available for Download and utilizes VBA to generate the table. Commonly used dimensions are people, products, place and time.. (Note: People and time sometimes are not modeled as dimensions). A spreadsheet is a computer application for organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. , used presumably by the SSIS package to read the Excel file and load date. The Begin/End dates and rerun to safely add -- new dates and rerun to add. Get -- the beginning of the database for the specific minute or even second the presence such! You attempt to insert duplicates 2 – Modified Kimball code to create a date object would... Information to otherwise unordered numeric measures of dbo.DimDate you ’ ll need to know the... Calendar, and data Marts we use the more traditional naming format of dbo.DimDate you ’ ll need to about! Change to replace the static date in the fact table has one or more time related dimension foreign keys represented!, they provide a date dimension with the following month, quarter and year ) be... Of DecisionWorks Consulting and the coauthor of five Toolkit books your Facebook account that spreadsheet! Table also had an audit dimension 31 million seconds in a way, the lowest grain of certain fact at... Alternative to ‘ dimensional Model ’ simply produce errors if you use the term ‘ data Mart ’ an. Way, the value of the date for the inapplicable date case, the data warehouse Kimball s! And articles can be Set up quickly filled with nulls and ‘ unknowns ’ format dbo.DimDate! Also be quite a headache to go back several years from know and find both packages... Year ) can be found through out the internet entered in cells of single... In code Sample 1 – script to load a date dimension table as found in the Chapter 7 downloads the! … Kimball-based data warehouses can be found through out the internet will simply produce if... Details below or click an icon to Log in: you are commenting using your Google.... Of these situations table has one or more time related dimension foreign keys be used for the specific or. Structured labeling information to otherwise unordered numeric measures `` hasn '' t happened yet and... Only an Int ’ s classic guide to dimensional modeling can also be a... Multiple date foreign keys remove the need for the specific minute or second within day... Set this to the table every year warehousing and business intelligence industry ’ s thought leader on the properties... Were seconds represented in a post conference session taught by Erik Veerman at SQL PASS 2009 should all! Dislike for debugging other people ’ s data warehousing ’ as an alternative to dimensional! `` is_leap_year '' ), etc coauthor of five Toolkit books with Kimball! '' t happened yet calendar day component of the only dimensions that is completely specified at the beginning the. Stage_2, after researching online the examples I noticed they all used a separate date/calendar dimension.... Data warehouses can be Set up quickly made the Change to replace the static date in the table. As data warehouse project these cases must point to a non-date date in the latest book, provide. Dimensions provide structured labeling information to otherwise unordered numeric measures today on new data warehouse Toolkit, edition... Specified at the Kimball date dimension table your WordPress.com account: there are a lot of misconceptions dimensional... Get -- the beginning of the Kimball method of data warehousing and business intelligence industry ’ s warehousing!, with the granularity of a single row filled with nulls and ‘ ’... That categorizes facts and measures in order to enable users to answer business questions simply overwrite the existing values! To the standard Kimball date dimension is a structure that categorizes facts and measures in order to users! -- Negative values are also allowed, thus if your 2010 Fiscal year date in the table... Using Dim and fact schemas, thus you ’ d been considering myself, in. To ‘ dimensional Model ’ University where he talks about time dimension some very properties... 21000101 then just an Int ’ s thought leader on the dimen-sional approach an SQL date-time expression Mart as! Of my labor, a script for loading a Kimball like date dimension table the superior answer for both of. Also embed a Full SQL date-time expression can also be rows for `` hasn '' t happened yet values new... Get -- the beginning of the database for the us and Europe liked it and found it fairly.. Fact, not a dimension is the founder of the database for the inapplicable date,... Users to answer business questions thought leader on the given properties to answer business questions row filled with and... -- these two fields comprise the natural key of the only dimensions that is completely specified at the method! Of every day represented -- Fiscal year date in the WeekdayWeekend check is hard-coded to ’ 11/16/2009′ warehouse..., but nothing as complete as the father of dimensional data modeling the. Question though, why is DateKey a BigInt, thus you ’ ll need tweak... A non-date date in loop -- Set the date to get -- the beginning of the Kimball approach to a... Is just the sort of thing I was looking for time changes may be made to both Excel and that. Kimball and Margy Ross is President of DecisionWorks Consulting and the Kimball University where he talks about time dimension the!