The definitive guide to dimensional design for your data warehouse

Learn the best practices of dimensional design. Star Schema: The Complete Reference offers in-depth coverage of design principles and their underlying rationales. Organized around design concepts and illustrated with detailed examples, this is a step-by-step guidebook for beginners and a comprehensive resource for experts.

This all-inclusive volume begins with dimensional design fundamentals and shows how they fit into diverse data warehouse architectures, including those of W.H. Inmon and Ralph Kimball. The book progresses through a series of advanced techniques that help you address real-world complexity, maximize performance, and adapt to the requirements of BI and ETL software products. You are furnished with design tasks and deliverables that can be incorporated into any project, regardless of architecture or methodology.

Master the fundamentals of star schema design and slow change processing

Identify situations that call for multiple stars or cubes

Ensure compatibility across subject areas as your data warehouse grows

Accommodate repeating attributes, recursive hierarchies, and poor data quality

Support conflicting requirements for historic data

Handle variation within a business process and correlation of disparate activities

Boost performance using derived schemas and aggregates

Learn when it's appropriate to adjust designs for BI and ETL tools