I’m a big fan of the Kimball method of Data Warehousing. A common task most of us setting up a new Data Warehouse face is creating a Date Dimension. In their book, “The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit With SQL Server 2005 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset”, they have an example of a good date dimension table in their books sample code. My complaint though was not so much with the layout itself, I liked it and found it fairly complete. Instead it was the method they chose to load it. They used an Excel spreadsheet, then a SQL Server Integration Services package to read the Excel file and load the date dimension table.
To me this approach has a couple of drawbacks. First, if you are doing all the loading on the server itself, you may not have Excel loaded. Thus you may be faced with the headache of creating the sheet then figuring out how to get it to a location the server can read. Second, when you go to add more dates in the future, you have to go into the spreadsheet and reset everything, removing what was there before. It can also be quite a headache to go back several years from know and find both SSIS packages and that Excel spreadsheet. Plus after that time changes may be made to both Excel and SSIS that make that solution no longer workable. Finally quite often it’s a DBA setting up the warehouse, and I’ve found there are still a few DBAs who are uncomfortable relying on SSIS, although I’m happy to say that number continues to shrink.
A T-SQL solution was clearly, to me anyway, the superior answer for both ease of use and long term stability. I assumed that as popular as the Kimball method is, someone would have already created a routine to load their style of date dimension, but some Binging and Googling around proved fruitless. I did find some code for loading some very simple date dimensions, but nothing as complete as the Kimball design. So, relishing a good coding challenge, I rolled up my sleeves and went to work. Below is the fruit of my labor, a script for loading a Kimball like date dimension. All you have to do is set the begin and end dates, indicate the offset for your fiscal year, and let ‘er rip. You can easily go back and add more dates by just adjusting the begin and end times.
A few things you should note. First, I did make a few slight modifications to the standard Kimball date dimension table as found in the previously mentioned book. They have a column titled “DateName” which holds the date as a string in YYYY/MM/DD format. As long as I was putting the date in, I decided to add string versions of the date for the US and Europe. These are in MM/DD/YYYY and DD/MM/YYYY formats and the columns are named “DateNameUS” and “DateNameEU” (for European Union) respectively.
Their table also had an audit key, used presumably by the SSIS package. I didn’t really see the need for an audit key for a date table, so I changed it to an identity column so I could have a secondary surrogate key if I needed it, just something to count the number of date rows easily and track the order they were inserted in.
One final, but very important distinction. I was in a post conference session taught by Erik Veerman at SQL PASS 2009. In it he mentioned using Dim and Fact schemas, thus you’d have [Dim].[Date] instead of [dbo].[DimDate]. I liked the idea as it was something I’d been considering myself, so in this version that is what I did. If you use the more traditional naming format of dbo.DimDate you’ll need to tweak the code.
Below is the code to load the Date Dimension table, which is my creation. Under it I placed my modified version of the Kimball Date Dimension table. It’s core code came from the sample code mentioned in the first paragraph then was modified by me. I include it for completeness.
Update: A few readers aptly pointed out I’d missed replacing a static date field when I worked the final version of the code. Made the change to replace the static date with @DateCounter.
Code Sample 1 – Script to load a date dimension.
/*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ /* Loads a Date Dimension */ /*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ -- A few notes, this code does nothing to the existing table, no deletes -- are triggered before hand. Because the DateKey is uniquely indexed, -- it will simply produce errors if you attempt to insert duplicates. -- You can however adjust the Begin/End dates and rerun to safely add -- new dates to the table every year. -- -- If the begin date is after the end date, no errors occur but nothing -- happens as the while loop never executes. SET NOCOUNT ON -- turn off all the 1 row inserted messages -- Hold our dates DECLARE @BeginDate DATETIME DECLARE @EndDate DATETIME -- Holds a flag so we can determine if the date is the last day of month DECLARE @LastDayOfMon CHAR(1) -- Number of months to add to the date to get the current Fiscal date DECLARE @FiscalYearMonthsOffset INT -- These two counters are used in our loop. DECLARE @DateCounter DATETIME --Current date in loop DECLARE @FiscalCounter DATETIME --Fiscal Year Date in loop -- Set the date to start populating and end populating SET @BeginDate = '01/01/2008' SET @EndDate = '12/31/2010' -- Set this to the number of months to add to the current date to get -- the beginning of the Fiscal year. For example, if the Fiscal year -- begins July 1, put a 6 there. -- Negative values are also allowed, thus if your 2010 Fiscal year -- begins in July of 2009, put a -6. SET @FiscalYearMonthsOffset = 6 -- Start the counter at the begin date SET @DateCounter = @BeginDate WHILE @DateCounter <= @EndDate BEGIN -- Calculate the current Fiscal date as an offset of -- the current date in the loop SET @FiscalCounter = DATEADD(m, @FiscalYearMonthsOffset, @DateCounter) -- Set value for IsLastDayOfMonth IF MONTH(@DateCounter) = MONTH(DATEADD(d, 1, @DateCounter)) SET @LastDayOfMon = 'N' ELSE SET @LastDayOfMon = 'Y' -- add a record into the date dimension table for this date INSERT INTO [Dim].[Date] ( [DateKey] , [FullDate] , [DateName] , [DateNameUS] , [DateNameEU] , [DayOfWeek] , [DayNameOfWeek] , [DayOfMonth] , [DayOfYear] , [WeekdayWeekend] , [WeekOfYear] , [MonthName] , [MonthOfYear] , [IsLastDayOfMonth] , [CalendarQuarter] , [CalendarYear] , [CalendarYearMonth] , [CalendarYearQtr] , [FiscalMonthOfYear] , [FiscalQuarter] , [FiscalYear] , [FiscalYearMonth] , [FiscalYearQtr] ) VALUES ( ( YEAR(@DateCounter) * 10000 ) + ( MONTH(@DateCounter) * 100 ) + DAY(@DateCounter) --DateKey , @DateCounter -- FullDate , CAST(YEAR(@DateCounter) AS CHAR(4)) + '/' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(mm, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) + '/' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(dd, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) --DateName , RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(mm, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) + '/' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(dd, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) + '/' + CAST(YEAR(@DateCounter) AS CHAR(4))--DateName , RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(dd, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) + '/' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(mm, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) + '/' + CAST(YEAR(@DateCounter) AS CHAR(4))--DateName , DATEPART(dw, @DateCounter) --DayOfWeek , DATENAME(dw, @DateCounter) --DayNameOfWeek , DATENAME(dd, @DateCounter) --DayOfMonth , DATENAME(dy, @DateCounter) --DayOfYear , CASE DATENAME(dw, @DateCounter) WHEN 'Saturday' THEN 'Weekend' WHEN 'Sunday' THEN 'Weekend' ELSE 'Weekday' END --WeekdayWeekend , DATENAME(ww, @DateCounter) --WeekOfYear , DATENAME(mm, @DateCounter) --MonthName , MONTH(@DateCounter) --MonthOfYear , @LastDayOfMon --IsLastDayOfMonth , DATENAME(qq, @DateCounter) --CalendarQuarter , YEAR(@DateCounter) --CalendarYear , CAST(YEAR(@DateCounter) AS CHAR(4)) + '-' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(mm, @DateCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) --CalendarYearMonth , CAST(YEAR(@DateCounter) AS CHAR(4)) + 'Q' + DATENAME(qq, @DateCounter) --CalendarYearQtr , MONTH(@FiscalCounter) --[FiscalMonthOfYear] , DATENAME(qq, @FiscalCounter) --[FiscalQuarter] , YEAR(@FiscalCounter) --[FiscalYear] , CAST(YEAR(@FiscalCounter) AS CHAR(4)) + '-' + RIGHT('00' + RTRIM(CAST(DATEPART(mm, @FiscalCounter) AS CHAR(2))), 2) --[FiscalYearMonth] , CAST(YEAR(@FiscalCounter) AS CHAR(4)) + 'Q' + DATENAME(qq, @FiscalCounter) --[FiscalYearQtr] ) -- Increment the date counter for next pass thru the loop SET @DateCounter = DATEADD(d, 1, @DateCounter) END SET NOCOUNT ON -- turn the annoying messages back on -- Select all rows inserted for the final year as a sanity check SELECT * FROM [Dim].[Date] WHERE DateKey > (YEAR(@EndDate) * 10000)
Code Sample 2 – Modified Kimball code to create a Date dimension.
/* Make sure the Dim schema exists */ IF SCHEMA_ID('Dim') IS NULL EXECUTE('CREATE SCHEMA [Dim] AUTHORIZATION [dbo]') GO /* Drop table DimDate */ IF EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM dbo.sysobjects WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(N'[Dim].[Date]') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsUserTable') = 1 ) DROP TABLE [Dim].[Date] GO /* Create table DimDate */ CREATE TABLE [Dim].[Date] ( [DateKey] BIGINT NOT NULL , [FullDate] DATETIME NULL , [DateName] CHAR(11) NULL , [DateNameUS] CHAR(11) NULL --US Date FORMAT, MM/DD/YYYY , [DateNameEU] CHAR(11) NULL --European Union Date Format DD/MM/YYYY , [DayOfWeek] TINYINT NULL , [DayNameOfWeek] CHAR(10) NULL , [DayOfMonth] TINYINT NULL , [DayOfYear] SMALLINT NULL , [WeekdayWeekend] CHAR(7) NULL , [WeekOfYear] TINYINT NULL , [MonthName] CHAR(10) NULL , [MonthOfYear] TINYINT NULL , [IsLastDayOfMonth] CHAR(1) NULL , [CalendarQuarter] TINYINT NULL , [CalendarYear] SMALLINT NULL , [CalendarYearMonth] CHAR(7) NULL , [CalendarYearQtr] CHAR(7) NULL , [FiscalMonthOfYear] TINYINT NULL , [FiscalQuarter] TINYINT NULL , [FiscalYear] INT NULL , [FiscalYearMonth] CHAR(9) NULL , [FiscalYearQtr] CHAR(8) NULL , [AuditKey] BIGINT IDENTITY NOT NULL , CONSTRAINT [PK_DimDate] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ( [DateKey] ) ) ON [PRIMARY] GO EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Table Type', @value = N'Dimension', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date' EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'View Name', @value = N'Date', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date' EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Date dimension contains one row for every day, beginning at 1/1/2000. There may also be rows for "hasn''t happened yet."', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date' EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Used in schemas', @value = N'Sales (3 roles); Finance; Currency Rates; Sales Quota (2 roles; one at Cal Qtr level)', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date' GO INSERT INTO [Dim].[Date] ( DateKey , FullDate , [DateName] , [DateNameUS] , [DateNameEU] , [DayOfWeek] , DayNameOfWeek , [DayOfMonth] , [DayOfYear] , WeekdayWeekend , WeekOfYear , [MonthName] , MonthOfYear , IsLastDayOfMonth , CalendarQuarter , CalendarYear , CalendarYearMonth , CalendarYearQtr , FiscalMonthOfYear , FiscalQuarter , FiscalYear , FiscalYearMonth , FiscalYearQtr ) VALUES ( -1 , NULL , 'Unknown' , 'Unknown' , 'Unknown' , NULL , 'Unknown' , NULL , NULL , 'Unknown' , NULL , 'Unknown' , NULL , 'N' , NULL , NULL , 'Unknown' , 'Unknown' , NULL , NULL , NULL , 'Unknown' , 'Unknown' ) GO EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Surrogate primary key', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Full date as a SQL date (time=00:00:00)', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FullDate' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Standard Date Format of YYYY/MM/DD', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Standard US Date Format of MM/DD/YYYY', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateNameUS' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Standard European Union Date Format of DD/MM/YYYY', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateNameEU' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Number of the day of week; Sunday = 1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Day name of week', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayNameOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Number of the day in the month', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Number of the day in the year', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Is today a weekday or a weekend', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekdayWeekend' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Week of year', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Month name', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Month of year', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Is this the last day of the calendar month?', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'IsLastDayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Calendar quarter', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Calendar year', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Calendar year and month', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Calendar year and quarter', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Fiscal month of year (1..12). FY starts in July', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalMonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Fiscal quarter', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Fiscal year. Fiscal year begins in July.', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Fiscal year and month', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'Fiscal year and quarter', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Description', @value = N'What process loaded this row?', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'AuditKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'FK To', @value = N'DimAudit.AuditKey', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'AuditKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'20041123', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'11/23/2004', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FullDate' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'23-Nov-2004', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1..7', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'Sunday', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayNameOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1..31', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1..365', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'Weekday, Weekend', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekdayWeekend' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1..52 or 53', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'November', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1, 2, …, 12', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'Y, N', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'IsLastDayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1, 2, 3, 4', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'2004', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'2004-01', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'2004Q1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1, 2, …, 12', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalMonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'1, 2, 3, 4', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'2004', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'FY2004-01', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Example Values', @value = N'FY2004Q1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayNameOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekdayWeekend' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'IsLastDayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalMonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'SCD Type', @value = N'1', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FullDate' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayNameOfWeek' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DayOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekdayWeekend' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'WeekOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthName' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'MonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'IsLastDayOfMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'CalendarYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalMonthOfYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalQuarter' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYear' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearMonth' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'FiscalYearQtr' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Source System', @value = N'Derived in ETL', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'AuditKey' ; EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty @name = N'Comments', @value = N'In the form: yyyymmdd', @level0type = N'SCHEMA', @level0name = N'Dim', @level1type = N'TABLE', @level1name = N'Date', @level2type = N'COLUMN', @level2name = N'DateKey' ; GO
Was Really useful! Saved a lot of time for me. Thanks a Ton!
Thanks but check your code before posting (I have an intense dislike for debugging other people’s code!) – you left a static date in the WeekdayWeekend CASE statement.
Take it or leave it, stop blaming others for your own lazyness. here is a great code exampe and almost all you can muster is a thanks and then a rant about your short commings with other peoples codes.
In other words: there are other ways of letting people know they made a mistake
5 years on and this is really helpful.
Thanks a lot. Great article and the sample code was very helpful.
correction: In code sample 1, the WeekdayWeekend check is hard-coded to ’11/16/2009′. need to replace it with the variable ‘@DateCounter’.
Good catch, fixed the posted code. Thanks.
An excellent article – and this code is just the sort of thing I was looking for! It was really helpful. Many thanks.
Much appreciate this post – saved me so much time today on new data warehouse project! Worked like a champ.
Hi
I can give you the reason why they used a spreadsheet. It is not because they don’t have scripts. It is because very often companies have special calendars and doing it in scripts would be very difficult for instance bank holidays (example in UK there is extra bank holiday that was announced last year!) so for me spreadsheet is fine for more complex calendars that you need to review frequently (UK likes to add a bank holiday from time to time just for one year).
Otherwise I use scripts but my new experience tells me that I might actually go Kimball spreadsheet 🙂
I also use SSIS package to do insert from spreadsheet for new dates and updates on existing dates. Not big problem to add new field.
Regards
Emil
Hi there!
This is great code! How would you go about calculating Fiscal Week?
I’ve tried DATENAME(ww, @FiscalCounter) but it doesn’t work as it doesn’t handle end of months properly.
Thanks
WisdomJuice
You are THE MAN! I’m still pretty green to SSAS/Kimball, but the approach (create in Excel, load to SQL) I used was a major pain in the posterior. A couple of search/replaces and trial runs and this code is now a permanent part of my working sample library – thank you a million times for making life easier 🙂
Ken Wilson
Thanks fella, very useful. One question though, why is DateKey a BigInt? As the biggest number it can sensibly hold would be something like 21000101 then just an Int should suffice, no? Even if you extend the date out to 99991231 it’s still only an int’s worth of data.
I know it’s possibly a small point, but when you’re measuring Fact tables in tens of millions of rows, those extra 4 bytes start to become significant.
Also, what was the point of inserting a single row filled with nulls and ‘unknowns’?
Ta muchly.
The single row is whats known as an audit dimension. I use 3 of these to represent Invalid data (-1), Not applicable data (-2) and Not Available (late arriving) data (-3) conditions in all dimension tables.
Scenarios this covers are
– Despatch date (use -3 as the surrogate value in the relevant FACT record) as it hasn’t been despatched yet
– Product Code is not found during lookup (use -1 and then someone will realise that Marketing forgot to tell you about the new promotion code for a product) – the FACT rows still load but rollup under “Invalid” for the Product Name
– OnlineSalesChannel (use -2 when its a store sale which clearly will never have an online sales channel type / code)
Unknown is a catch all for all 3 of these situations.
PS. Thanks for the really useful post Arcanecode. Much appreciated
Brilliant thanks
That is a good solution. I will keep this for day to come
Thank you very much. I was getting a$$ pumped by SSIS for 4 hours trying to import from excel/flat file as per Kimball’s book.
I have used the Date Dimension Generator from here http://justbistuff.com/datedimensiongenerator. I found it very useful.