FACT TABLE LOADING

Fact table loading is often simpler than dimension ETL, because a fact table usually involves just inserts and, occasionally, updates. When dealing with large volumes, you may need to handle partition inserts and deal with updates in a different way.

In general, fact table loading involves a few common tasks:

• Preparing your source data to be at the same granularity as your fact table, including having the dimension business keys and measures in the source data
• Acquiring the dimension surrogate keys for any related dimension
• Identifying new records for the fact table (and potentially updates)

The Sales Quota fact table is relatively straightforward and will give you a good start toward developing your fact table ETL: