A model for analytics named after its diagram's shape: dimension tables describing the data surround, and link to, one central fact table holding the measures.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains Star schema in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Fact table
Stores the numbers captured when business events happen, like what each sale brought in; an analytical model rolls these up into measures and slices them by dimensions.
Related terms
- Dimension table
Holds the entities, such as customer, product, store or date, by which facts are summarised in a snowflake or star schema. Users drill up and down through hierarchies of these dimensions.
- Semantic model
Sometimes called an OLAP model, this Power BI and Fabric layer defines the measures, hierarchies, tables and relationships that reports and dashboards query; star schema design is the usual pattern.
- Snowflake schema
Like a star schema, except that at least one dimension is normalised out into a chain of linked tables; for instance category, subcategory and product may each get their own table.