Forum Discussion
Star schema, when to create a dimension table?
Hi,
When I have one big Excel table as a datasource, is it necessary to create a dimension table for each slicer I want to use in the report? Or can I just simply take that column from the fact table and put that into a slicer? Does this make any difference regarding the performance of the reports, when the amount of rows in the datamodel is growing?
Kind regards,
Arie
It is not necessary to create individual dimension tables, you can just use the columns. A lot of the old rules with MDX do not apply to Tabular. That being said, you performance question is an interesting one. Here are some links that may help:
3 Replies
Hi Arie,
According to my experience, I usually create dimension tables for columns that I use in several tables, that way I can make the relationships uch easier and simplifiying the model in term of slicers.
I have made several models and dashboard and didn't notice any majour differences between using a dimension table for slicers or the actuals column in the datasource. But it also dependes on the size of your data source.
Again this is my experience with the models I have created.
Regards,
MFelix
It is not necessary to create individual dimension tables, you can just use the columns. A lot of the old rules with MDX do not apply to Tabular. That being said, you performance question is an interesting one. Here are some links that may help:
