Fact Tables
Lesson Notes
Fact Tables Lesson Notes:
Video
Lecture Notes:
Fact Table Recap
“There is no point in hoisting fact tables up the flagpole unless they have been chosen to reflect urgent business priorities“ By Ralph Kimball, kimballgroup.com”
Fact Table
What is the fact table?
It is the foundation of the data warehouse.
It consists of facts and measurements of a particular business aspect and processes ex: daily revenue for a product.
It is the target of queries in most of DWH analysis and reports.
It contains measurements/facts and foreign keys to dimensions table.
It located at the center of the schema and surrounded by dimension tables.
How to design a fact table?
Choose the business process.
Identify the grain.
Identify the dimensions.
Identify the fact.
Fact Granularity
The grain is the definition of what a single row in the fact table will represent or contains.
The grain describes the physical event which needs to be measured.
Grain controls the dimensions which are available in fact.
Grain represents the level of information we need to represent. It is not always time; it could be the physical business measurement level.
Design from the lowest possible grain.
Fact Table Types
There are three types of fact tables:
Transaction.
Periodic.
Accumulated Snapshot.
Fact Types: Transaction Fact Table
Fact grain set at a single transaction
It has one row per transaction.
For each transaction, we add a new single record.
The transaction fact table is known to grow very fast as the number of transactions increases.
Fact Types:Transaction Example
| customer_id | trns_date | trns_time | call_type | duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1234 | 2020-01-01 | 12:22:45.9 | Incoming | 29 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-01 | 12:22:45.9 | Incoming | 3134 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-02 | 15:22:45.0 | Outgoing | 890 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-02 | 15:22:45.0 | International | 119 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-03 | 23:22:45.0 | Incoming | 145 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-03 | 23:22:45.0 | Outgoing | 124 |
| 1234 | 2020-01-03 | 23:22:45.0 | Outgoing | 1200 |
Transaction fact example of telecom calls data.
Fact Types: Periodic Fact Table
A periodic fact table contains one row for a group of transactions over a period.
It must be from lower granularity to higher granularity hourly, daily, monthly, and quertrly, then yearly.
Fact Types: Periodic Fact Table Example
| cust_id | month_id | incoming | outgoing | international |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1234 | 20200131 | 3308 | 2124 | 119 |
Fact Types: Accumulated Snapshot Fact Table
An accumulating fact table stores one row for the entire process.
It does not accumulate time it accumulates business process.
A row in an accumulating snapshot fact table summarizes the measurement events occurring at predictable steps between the beginning and the end of a process
Accumulating Fact tables are used to show the activity of progress through a well-defined process and are most often used to research the time between milestones.
These fact tables are updated as the business process unfolds, and each milestone is completed.
Fact Types: Accumulated Snapshot Fact Table Example
Accumulated Snapshot use cases are engaged when we need to report the entire process life-cycle.Fact Types: Accumulated Snapshot Use Cases.
It also uses to measure the process performance life-cycle.
Order life-cycle.
Insurance processing.
Hiring process.
Fact Types: Accumulated Snapshot Fact Table Example
Example of Accumlated Snapshot: An insurance company
It fact table named: fact_claim_processing.
This fact represents the claim life-cycle inside the company.
It contains detail related to claim.
This fact update after each stage finished.
The requirement it to report the number of days (lag) between stages (milestone) and the claim data (starting).
Fact Types:Accumulated Snapshot Example
One solution to implement the requirement is to use SCD.
In this case, we will have stages and dates, and we will calculate the difference between stages and dates using complex sub-query.
Another solution is to implement an accumulated snapshot fact
Periodic fact example of telecom calls data:
FACT_CLAIM_PROCESSING CLAIM_KEY CUSTOMER_KEY POLICY_KEY CLAIM_DATE INVESTIGATION_DATE REVIEW_DATE DECISION_DATE PAYMENT_DATE FACT_CLAIM_PROCESSING_ACCUM CLAIM_KEY CUSTOMER_KEY POLICY_KEY CLAIM_DATE INVESTIGATION_DATE DAY_TO_INVESTIGATE REVIEW_DATE DAY_TO_REVIEW DECISION_DATE DAY_TO_DECISION PAYMENT_DATE DAY_TO_PAYMENT
Fact Types: Accumulated Snapshot Table Example
Accumulated Snapshot Fact Example on Claim Process Data.
| column_name | column_value |
|---|---|
| claim_key | 123 |
| customer_key | 5235326 |
| policy_key | 23632623 |
| claim_date | 2020-01-01 |
| investigation_date | 2020-01-03 |
| day_to_investigate | 2 |
| review_date | 2020-01-07 |
| day_to_review | 6 |
| decision_date | 2020-01-08 |
| day_to_decision | 7 |
| payment_date | 2020-01-11 |
| day_to_payment | 10 |
| process_completed_flag | 10 |
Fact Table Types: Comparison
Fact tables types comparison.
| Feature | Transaction | Periodic | Accumulating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grain | 1 row/transaction | 1 row/time-period | event stages |
| Date Dimension | Lowest granularity | End-of-period granularity | Multiple date |
| Facts | Transaction activities | Periodic activities | Defined lifetime activities |
| Size | Largest | Medium | Smallest |
| Update | No | No | Yes, after stage finished |
Fact types
Each fact table includes facts and it has different types:
Additive facts.
Semi-additive facts.
Non-additive facts.
Derived facts.
Textual facts.
Factless fact.
Additive facts
It is the most flexible and useful facts.
Its measures can be summed across any of the dimensions associated with the fact table.
Sales Date Store Product Sales_Amount
Semi-additive facts
It can be added across some dimensions but not all also known as (partially-additive).
what’s the total current balance for all accounts in the bank?
What’s the current balances for a given account for each day of the month does not give us any useful information?
account_details Date Account Current_Balance Profit_Margin
Non-additive facts
It can’t be added for any of the dimensions.
Non-additive facts are usually the result of ratios (percentage) or other mathematical calculations.
Profit_Margin is an example non-additive.
account_details Date Account Current_Balance Profit_Margin
Derived facts
Derived facts are created by performing a mathematical calculation on a number of other facts, and are sometimes referred to as calculated facts. Derived facts may or may not be stored inside the fact table.
Total_sales = Qty_Sold * ( Unit_price - Discount)
Order_Details Order_id Item_id Order_date Qty_Sold Unit_price Discount Total_sales
Textual facts
A textual fact consists of one or more characters such as flags and indicators.
It should be avoided in the fact table
Factless fact
- A fact table with only foreign keys and no facts is called a factless fact table.
References
https://www.nuwavesolutions.com/accumulating-snapshot-fact-tables/
https://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/fact-table-types.html
Further Reading
Dimensional Modeling: In a Business Intelligence Environment. The book is free, and you can download it from this link. You can read the following:
- Chapter 5.5 Identify the facts page 169
- Chapter 6.4 Facts and facts types page 297