More design

The other day I had a rant about poor (in my opinion) DW design, and in particular not using the database features to the best advantage (or at all). Sometimes, though, people use the wrong features.

Database links can be a marvellous feature when used the right way (it can move data efficiently between databases, for example) but linking to three remote tables (and using an outer join between two them) is perhaps not the best way to write an insert cursor! I have a feeling that this could well be re-written to run faster.

Don’t get me wrong though, reviewing the work of others is not about making my company’s work seem better than the competition; it’s good for me too as it gets me to think outside my normal set of methods and sometimes I learn better ways to do things (I do not have a monopoly on being right!)

Over the last few days I have been thinking a lot about the logical design of data warehouses and not just because of one of my current projects is to review a customer’s data warehouse systems. I am, in fact, trying to write a far longer piece on data warehouse design than I would publish on here my Blog. The mechanics of typing are not too bad; the real challenges are to encapsulate a big topic in a way that makes my points clearly and to provide supporting evidence that withstands the rigours of peer review