A dimension table consists of the data of a specific dimension. For example, if you want to analyze product sales, you can use the product category and time as dimensions and create a product dimension table and a time dimension table. This topic describes how to create a dimension table.
Prerequisites
- A data layer is created. Each data layer stores tables that serve the same purpose. This helps you easily find and use tables. In most cases, dimension tables are stored at the dimension (DIM) layer. You can also store dimension tables at other data layers based on your business requirements. For more information about how to create a data layer, see Create a data layer.
- A data domain is created. A data domain determines the type of business data that can be stored in a dimension table. For more information about how to create a data domain, see Data domain.
Background information

- When you create a dimension table, take note of the following points:
- You can specify the business category and data domain that are analyzed by using the dimension table. This way, you can view the dimension tables of a specific business category or data domain in the future.
- You can specify the data layer that stores the dimension table when the dimension table is used for data modeling analysis. In most cases, dimension tables are stored at the DIM layer.
- After you create a dimension table, you can add dimension attributes as fields in the dimension table. You can also associate the dimension table with fields of other dimension tables, partition the dimension table, and specify each field against a uniform data standard. This ensures consistent attributes for the dimension data across the entire data domain.
- After you create and configure a dimension table, you can publish and materialize the dimension table to a compute engine. The dimension table can be used in the compute engine for data analysis.
- After you configure a dimension table, you can directly associate and use the fields in the dimension table when you design and create derived metrics and aggregate tables.