Forum Discussion

jPinhao's avatar
jPinhao
Advocate II
10 years ago

Cyclic relationship between tables

We have some fact tables (Database Opened / Database Available) in Power BI that reference columns in multiple common reference tables (All Databases / events):

 

 

(There's other fact/refernce tables, that bring togetehr users-events-sessions , etc.)

 

One of the relations can't be activated (Database Available -> All Databases), as it says there is already an active set of indirect relationships. When we're adding some measures to All Databases, so we can count the number of users, number of owners, and % owners that used the database, it just can't seem to resolve the dependency between Database Available -> All Databases correctly.

 

It feels like we've got the schema and relationships wrong, but I can't see how to better organise this data. It also feels like a common issue which will have a solution, but I can't seem to find it after searching. What is the best approach in these scenarios? Is there a pattern to follow to remove this cyclic dependency?

Need Help

1 Reply

  • Mi2n's avatar
    Mi2n
    Microsoft Employee
    10 years ago

    jPinhao... just wondering, why can't you combine the tables "Database Opened" and "Database Available" into a single table, and have a new field (say "Database availability") in the single table in order to distinguish between the two tables?

     

    This will make the relationships simpler.