database design

There are a lot of data warehousing books out there that try to answer the question: 'Why'? Why data warehouses are needed to help businesses make better decisions - why the OLTP systems that run the business can't do this - and sometimes even why businesses ought to invest in data warehouses. These books were terrifically useful to us years ago, when we needed help (and scholarly footnotes) in our data warehouse project proposals.

This book is not one of those - it is all about: 'How'.

How to actually design and build a repository that will deliver real value to real people. In this reviewer's opinion, Ralph Kimball's many contributions related to the 'how' of data warehousing stand alone.

An engineer trying to just-start data warehouse expertise would have to read Ralph's Data Warehouse Toolkit first edition, his Data Webhouse Toolkit... a bunch of Intelligence Enterprise magazine articles... AND lurk on the Data Warehousing List Server...for a few years (all terrific resources - by the way) - in order to stockpile the knowledge that is crisply presented here.

No shortcuts that I can spot: all of the toughest dimensional design issues that I've tripped on - and can remember surfacing on in discussion groups over the past few years - are addressed in this significantly updated text. Not all of the solutions are 'pretty' - but it is clear that they thoughtfully address the problem. This rings true to my God-given 'bs' detector.

The authors have been listening to and addressing the data warehouse community's 'pain' through periodicals and posts - but this book pulls these point solutions together very nicely. I learned a surprising number of really useful new techniques, and was genuinely enlightened by the 'Present Imperatives and Future Outlook' section.

As in the first edition, there is minimal philosophical lecturing, and zero religion - perhaps the only reason to hesitate in describing it as the 'bible' of dimensional data warehousing. Authors of 'bibles' sometimes appear to be handcuffed by their need to be perceived as infallible - such is not the case here. Instead, we get generous helpings of real-world case studies - aptly used to illustrate a progressively more advanced series of design concepts.

This style absolutely works for me. And I suspect that engineering mindsets typical of the folks that build these things will surely agree.

In short, the Data Warehouse Toolkit Second Edition will significantly lighten the load of books that I carry between data warehouse engagements...

Listen Software Solutions: Kimball is considered by many to be the father of data warehousing. I learned how to set up an dimension and fact table from this book. This was cool and very different. I had a complete set of Oracle data warehousing books, but this book was the beginning. I've read many books on data warehousing that reference Kimball. I spent alot of time thinking about SQL pivots, group by. In fact, I wrote a simple OLAP tool that allow search through the dimension into the fact table. Kimball explains the purpose of data warehousing. He also helps one realize the planning necessary to manage a data warehouse. One thing is clear, data warehousing is important and companies are using them. One significant point he makes in the book is that relational databases were intended to make data retrieval simple. Wow, what happen? The most complex code I've ever written was for report, hugh SQL statements with numerous joins spanning numerous tables, functions, and subqueries. Additionally the book covers advanced topics like data marts, cubes, and snowflakes are described and illustrated effectively in the book. I enthusatically recommend this book. Data Warehousing is the next revolution in information processing. It was very exciting to see concept become reality, a 3-Dimensional look at your data. Most of my work was using Oracle and Oracle Discover. However, I did build a few cubes using Microsoft OLAP tools. This is the book to buy.

The mandatory bible for any datawarehouse developer. Complete with examples and case studies, it will satisfy beginners as well as experienced professionals. I began with this.. and havent finished using it yet!