Forum Discussion
Data Modeling - Dimension Date
The approach I take is to add a date column to the fact table. This allows you to create a relationship with DimDate.
To create a date column in the fact table, you can use any date in the period. I prefer to use the first date of the period since all months have day 1, but not all months have day 31. For example, "2016 Q1" would be 2016-01-01 (assuming your quarters are based on a calendar year).
The approach I take is to add a date column to the fact table. This allows you to create a relationship with DimDate.
To create a date column in the fact table, you can use any date in the period. I prefer to use the first date of the period since all months have day 1, but not all months have day 31. For example, "2016 Q1" would be 2016-01-01 (assuming your quarters are based on a calendar year).