Properly Implementing Dynamic Dimension Descriptions

The topic of dynamic dimension descriptions isn’t new, but the method for which I’ve come up with is a hybrid of several other methodologies, making for a great subject piece. Using codes and descriptions in your warehouse dimensions is standard practice, even in some cases the use-case may require displaying a code versus a description, for example: displaying USA instead of United States of America, or even in situations where the business understands what a “TPS” report type is more so than the formal “Testing Procedure Specification” description. In any case, you’ll want a method that enables the ability to add and modify additional codes and their descriptions without having to perform risky manual updates to the warehouse.

In this post, I will discuss a rigid yet tolerant way for properly implementing dynamic dimension descriptions without ever directly modifying a warehouse dimensional table. Instead, we’ll implement a lookup table that an end user can insert and update freely, along with a robust ETL process that uses this same lookup table to perform description updates and even type 2 historical tracking, if necessary.

Dynamic Dimension Descriptions Using An ETL Lookup Table

Dynamic Dimension Descriptions diagram displaying how to load new, unknown codes.
Dynamic Dimension Descriptions diagram displaying how to load new, unknown codes.

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