Snowflake schema

Snowflake schema

A snowflake schema is a type of database schema used in data warehousing that is similar to a star schema, but with some dimension tables further subdivided. This schema is constructed using dimensional data tables and a fact table, and the dimensional structure of the data is presented in a star schema, a snowflake schema, and a fact constellation schema. The snowflake schema normalizes some dimension tables, resulting in the splitting of the dimension data into additional tables.From: Data Mining [2017], A Data Mining Approach for Developing Online Streaming Recommendations [2021], eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction [2019]

Data Mining

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Published in Bogdan M. Wilamowski, J. David Irwin, Intelligent Systems, 2018

Milos Manic

A star schema is composed of the fact (central) table with keys to (four) dimension tables (redundancies are possible). A snowflake schema is composed of centralized fact tables connected to dimensions, hence resembling a snowflake (E-R relationship). The snowflake schema is easier to maintain, less effective in browsing (some dimension tables are normalized, no redundancies). A collection of stars produces fact constellation (two fact tables) schema (dimension tables are now shared among fact tables).

A Data Mining Approach for Developing Online Streaming Recommendations

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Published in Applied Artificial Intelligence, 2021

Shu-Hsien Liao, Retno Widowati, Hao-Yu Chang

Berson et al. (1997) noted that a snowflake schema database is constructed using dimensional data tables and a fact table, and the dimensional structure of the data is presented in a star schema, a snowflake schema, and a fact constellation schema. A multi-dimensional data model is necessary to organize and store a large amount of data in a data warehouse so that queries and analysis decisions can be optimized. This study uses a snowflake schema including 2,124 data record, which is an extension of the star schema. This schema queries the data and saves storage space and is easier to maintain than other schema modes that use a relational database. The snowflake schema database is shown in Figure 1 and includes 17 fact tables, 9 relationships and 76 dimensions.

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Data Mining

A Data Mining Approach for Developing Online Streaming Recommendations