By Pete Stiglich
Explains why dimensional warehouses typically use surrogate keys in dimensions instead of relying on natural keys from source systems. Small numeric surrogate keys speed joins between facts and dimensions and help simplify query plans. The article also connects surrogate keys to slowly changing dimensions, enabling historical tracking when source identifiers change or when business definitions evolve. Overall, it frames surrogate keys as both a performance optimization and an architectural tactic that stabilizes the warehouse against churn in upstream systems.
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Pete Stiglich: Trusted Expert in Data Architecture & Modeling
Pete has over 30 years of data architecture, data management, and analytics experience, most of that time as a consultant in industries such as government, finance, healthcare, insurance, and more. He is an industry thought leader in data architecture and data modeling and has developed and taught many courses on these topics. Pete enjoys helping clients solve complex data problems, leveraging proven approaches such as “Modeling the business before modeling the solution” which provides a benefit to clients that many IT professionals miss.
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