22 Apr 2012

Data Modelling with differing levels of data granularity

I came across this in a discussion on Linkedin's Microsoft Business Intelligence group, the initial post asked

 "Join Fact and Dimension Tables that are at Two Different Grains
I have a fact table that is based off the source system at a order level. My dimension is at a order line detail level. Would creating a bridge table work to join the fact and dimension or should I create another order dimension table at the order level?"

Click here for a Kimball Group cheat sheet with examples suggested by Assaf Mentzer which answers this question. 

6 Apr 2012

SSIS load text file name into table for ETL auditing Unicode error

The old saying still rings true, you get what you pay for, pay nothing, expect nothing, this excellent post details how to read the file name but this post will cause a unicode error because the its missing details at this part



"Be sure to change the DATA TYPE from UNICODE to STRING.  Select OK to confirm changes."  This is impossible unless you do this

Click on Show Advanced Editor





to change the data type to String (see screen shot below)







Then your data type will be string (see below)


And then you will not have unicode errors.