Free sampleModel the Datamedium
You are classifying tables in a new sales semantic model. Which combination of characteristics best describes a fact table in star schema design?
- ADescribes business entities with descriptive attributes and is typically a small table.
- BHolds a snowflake set of normalised lookup tables for a single business entity.
- CStores events with dimension keys and numeric measure columns, typically with many rows. Correct
- DActs as a disconnected table that accepts slicer input for what-if scenario analysis.
Fact tables hold events and measures with dimension keys; dimensions describe the entities that filter them. Fact tables store observations or events such as sales orders, stock balances, exchange rates, or temperatures. They contain dimension key columns that relate to dimension tables plus numeric measure columns, and they typically grow much larger than dimension tables over time.
Why A is wrong: This describes dimension tables, which hold attributes used for filtering and grouping rather than the events themselves.
Why B is wrong: Snowflake dimensions are normalised sets of dimension tables for one entity, not a description of fact tables.
Why C is correct: Correct. Fact tables store observations or events such as sales orders, stock balances, exchange rates, or temperatures.
Why D is wrong: Disconnected tables are isolated input tables for what-if patterns; they do not hold business events.