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A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data

005·14

junk dimension

/dʒʌŋk dɪˈmɛn.ʃən/ - n.

1 [colloq.] The drawer where the model keeps every yes/no flag a stakeholder swore was critical and never queried.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. A dimension that consolidates assorted low-cardinality flags and indicators into one table to keep the fact table narrow.

Filed

See also

dimension tableWhere the company keeps every adjective it has ever applied to a customer, none of them governed.
fact tableThe one table everyone trusts, named for a property no one has verified.
grainThe question 'what does one row mean?', asked far too late and answered by whoever wrote the query.