Skip to content
Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·14

star schema

/stɑːr ˈskiː.mə/ - n.

1 [colloq.] A clean diagram at the center of the deck, surrounded on all sides by the joins that did not fit on the slide.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. A dimensional design in which a central fact table joins directly to denormalized dimension tables, forming a star-shaped query path.

Promoted
See also
  • dimension tableWhere the company keeps every adjective it has ever applied to a customer, none of them governed.
  • dimensional modelingDeciding what the business measures and what it measures by, then discovering nobody agrees on either.
  • fact tableThe one table everyone trusts, named for a property no one has verified.
  • snowflake schemaWhat a star schema becomes after each team adds the one extra table that only their report needs.