[AccessD] Re: DatePart Question

Hear, hear!

There is IMO a large distinction between OLTP and OLAP apps, and what works
in the former cannot be assumed to work in the latter. And vice-versa.
Data-entry and modification should never be confused with data-analysis, and
asking a single database to do both is IMO stupid or lazy or both.

Arthur

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Charlotte
Foust
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 5:38 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Re: DatePart Question


The essential difference is that the date dimension table is generally
used in data warehouse applications, not in regular data entry
databases.  They can be useful in the latter for reporting purposes
only, but you can get by nicely if you've never had to slice and dice
very large tables based on a bunch of date criteria.  Note that fact
tables in a datawarehouse are usually not normalized in the same way as
regular database tables either (they are commonly 1NF), so dimension
tables give you flexibility that it's hard to get any other way.  Data
warehousing may be slightly off-topic, but only because Access
developers don't have to deal with it very often.  I have, so I can
appreciate both sides of the discussion.

Charlotte Foust

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