Forum Discussion
Helper IRole Playing Dimension vs USERELATINSHIP
Hi Community,
Eventhough we have USERELATIONSHIP that can handle Inactive Relationship,Why do we need Role Playing Dimension?
It may be said that Role Playing Dimension can be used for Small Dimension Tabels, if so we can hand the same with USERELATIONSHIP as well .
Hey santhiya ,
role-playing dimensions can answer questions that can not be answered by having only a single table on the one-side of a relationship.
I recommend reading these articles:- Welcome to Power BI theatre: Role-Playing Dimensions! - Data Mozart (data-mozart.com)
- UseRelationship or Role-Playing Dimension; Dealing with Inactive Relationships in Power BI - RADACAD
Both articles are mentioning that role-playing dimensions are good for "small" dimension tables, and both articles are reflecting on the memory consumption that comes with large role-playing dimension tables. Memory consumption has to be on our minds all the time as we are talking about an in-memory columnar analytical data store.
Nevertheless, role-playing dimensions can answer questions that are focusing on the analysis of a single measure, like showing SalesAmount (the measure) with order date (role-playing) on rows and ship date (the 2nd actor) on columns.
This means that the answer to your question is as always, it depends.
The nature of the questions to be answered dictates the modeling approach - as always.
Hopefully, this helps to better understand the difference between these approaches.
Regards,
Tom
2 Replies
- TomMartens
Super User
Hey santhiya ,
role-playing dimensions can answer questions that can not be answered by having only a single table on the one-side of a relationship.
I recommend reading these articles:- Welcome to Power BI theatre: Role-Playing Dimensions! - Data Mozart (data-mozart.com)
- UseRelationship or Role-Playing Dimension; Dealing with Inactive Relationships in Power BI - RADACAD
Both articles are mentioning that role-playing dimensions are good for "small" dimension tables, and both articles are reflecting on the memory consumption that comes with large role-playing dimension tables. Memory consumption has to be on our minds all the time as we are talking about an in-memory columnar analytical data store.
Nevertheless, role-playing dimensions can answer questions that are focusing on the analysis of a single measure, like showing SalesAmount (the measure) with order date (role-playing) on rows and ship date (the 2nd actor) on columns.
This means that the answer to your question is as always, it depends.
The nature of the questions to be answered dictates the modeling approach - as always.
Hopefully, this helps to better understand the difference between these approaches.
Regards,
Tom
santhiyaHi TomMartens thanks! your statement "Nevertheless, role-playing dimensions can answer questions that are focusing on the analysis of a single measure, like showing SalesAmount (the measure) with order date (role-playing) on rows and ship date (the 2nd actor) on columns." gives a clear idea to me.