Fact Tables > Defining column types and default values
  
Defining column types and default values
1 List all the columns for the KPI fact table.
2 Amend the properties for each column. The column types can be one of the following:
 
Type
Description
Dimension Key
Any dimension that is not the time or KPI dimension
Time Dimension Key
Time dimension key
KPI Dimension Key
KPI dimension key
Month-to-date Measure
Used to identify the normal KPI measures. These are calculated to populate the KPI during each run.
Year-to-date Measure
Used to identify year-to-date measures for the KPI. Optionally calculated or derived from existing rows and measures in the KPI fact table.
Last year same month Measure
Used to identify measures for same month last year comparisons. Derived from existing rows and measures in the KPI fact table.
Previous year-to-date Measure
Used to identify previous year-to-date measures. Derived from existing rows and measures in the KPI fact table.
Fact Table Key
Not normally used
Date
Not normally used
Attribute
Not normally used
Measure
Not normally used
 
TIP: If an Attribute or Measure column is specified then this column will just be set to its default value. In this way an update_time column can be set by making its default value sysdate.
3 For each column set a default value.
For measures and dimension keys this would normally be zero (0). Nulls can be represented as two single quotation marks, i.e. ' '
sysdate can be used for a default date value
These default values populate the columns where and when no other information is available. For example if a KPI only makes use of 4 of the 6 dimensions available then the remaining 2 dimensions will be set to their default values.