Re: data warehouse vs regular database??

The Ralph Kimball answer:

A DW is a collection of data marts. A Data mart is typically a fact table surrounded by a collection of dimension tables.

The Bill Inmon answer:

A DW is a system designed to collect data from an enterprise for the purpose of creating data marts.

It is not normally queried by end users, that is what the DM's are for.

Regardless of which viewpoint you hold, both are characterized by data being time sensitive: facts are stored with date.

Then again, there are databases that do not really resemble either of these, but are nonetheless used as a DW.

Where does your database get its data from? If it comes from other databases and/or systems, then it is likely a DW.

Google for "data warehouse institute", "Ralph Kimball" and "Bill Inmon", and you will find plenty of info.

If you want to learn about DW, Kimball's "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" is a good place to start.

HTH Jared

On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 09:04, Janet Linsy wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been working with Oracle 92. I have no
> experience with Oracle Warehouse. In my current
> company, I was told the database is a warehouse. I
> can connect to it using sql plus or pl/sql developer.
> The "warehouse" looks the same as the database I
> worked with before. How do I tell if a database is a
> warehouse or just a regular database. What's the big
> difference between the two?
>
> Could someone send me some link about data warehouse?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Janet
>
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Author: Jared Still
  INET: jkstill_at_cybcon.com

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