fact tables (Analysis Services)

Question

I was just wondering if there could be any fact table, the keys of which dont belong to any of the dim tables? However, the fact table seems to contain the dim data.

The reason I came up with this question is that I was looking into a package which uses a dim table and fact table to pull data from, manipulate and them dump into the fact table. But, when I was trying to find any dependencies on the fact table (in the DSV ADD/Remove tables dialog box, I added the fact table, and then when I clicked on related tables, there was none)

And my claim is that the fact table gets some of its data from the dim tables.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Answer 1

Is the fact table a table or named query?

Answer 2

Does your Fact table have columns which contain dimension keys, but are not constrained with a foreign key? I assume SSAS uses the foreign keys to identify related tables, so in this case, it wouldn't detect those tables. You can add related tables manually.

Another possibility is that the Fact table contains all the dimensions internally in a denormalized form. Rather than having dimension tables and keys to dimension members, all the data is stored in string form in the Fact table. If this is the case, you can create dimensions from the columns in the Fact table.