Star Schema

This is the final installment of our schema series. We’ve seen the Star Express and the Snowflake District. Now, it’s time for the ultimate showdown. How does Conductor Mickey decide which tracks to lay down for the “Invisible City”? In the previous posts, we explored two very different ways to organize a subway station: The Star: Fast, flat, and simple. The Snowflake: Detailed, organized, and space-saving. But in the real world of Data Engineering, you can’t always have both. You have to choose your priority: Speed or Storage? ...

In our digital subway city, some stations are “Hubs.” They sit right in the middle, and every train line passes through them. In data engineering, if you don’t organize your stations, your subway maps will look like a plate of spaghetti. To keep things clean, we use Dimensional Modeling. The most famous layout for speed is the Star Schema. What is a Star Schema? The Star Schema is designed for one thing: Speed. It organizes your data into two distinct types of citizens: Facts and Dimensions. ...