Verkaufsfaktentabelle

Verkaufsfaktentabelle, also known as a sales fact table, is a central component in dimensional modeling within data warehousing and business intelligence. Its primary purpose is to store the quantitative measurements of business processes, often referred to as facts. These facts are typically numerical values that can be aggregated, such as sales revenue, quantity sold, or cost.

A sales fact table is designed to be queried frequently and efficiently. It is characterized by its large size, as it accumulates transactional data over time. The structure of a fact table typically consists of foreign keys that link to dimension tables and the actual numerical facts. Dimension tables provide the context for the facts, describing attributes such as product, customer, date, and location.

In a sales context, a fact table might contain columns for customer key, product key, date key, store key, quantity sold, unit price, and total sales amount. These facts are additive, meaning they can be summed across various dimensions to provide meaningful business insights. For example, summing the total sales amount by month or by product category.

The design of a sales fact table is crucial for performance. Denormalization is often employed, and the grain of the fact table (the lowest level of detail it represents) is carefully defined to balance analytical needs with storage and performance considerations. Understanding the sales fact table is key to effectively analyzing sales performance, identifying trends, and making informed business decisions.