While conventional wisdom (and Kimball) says that using meaningful identifiers for surrogate keys is a bad idea, there are some exceptions where it makes sense. Typical examples include: Calendar. An example of a Calendar smart key is – year, month, day e.g. 20110721. A DateTime value can be converted to this date format using this statement convert(char(8),date, 112)….
What is a derived staging table? It’s a table created in your Staging database that derives its data from other already existing Staging tables. Its useful for creating aggregations, or allocations of data prior to the transform and load process into your Data Warehouse. It can also be useful for tables that don’t have any…
This article discusses how to add a Custom SSIS Component to the SSIS Tool Box in Visual Studio, so you can use it in your Control or Data Flows. Custom components are often distributed as DLL files, so some manual installation is usually required. 1. Add the DLL to your system The SSIS BIDS toolbox locates components…
To add an Existing Dimension to an SSAS Project Right click the project node in Solutions Explorer. Select Add>Existing Item. Navigate to the dimension file (wherever it may be), select it and click add. A copy of the dimension is copied into your SSAS project root directory, and added to the project. A Dimension is…
