Data Warehouse Fundamentals

Data Warehouse

A data warehouse is a centralized repository that stores data from various sources in a single location, making it easier to analyze and report.

Characteristics of a Data Warehouse

• Integrated: Data from multiple sources is consolidated into a single repository.
• Time-variant: Data is stored with a time component, allowing for historical analysis.
• Non-volatile: Data is not updated in real-time, ensuring data consistency.
• Data is transformed: Data is converted into a format suitable for analysis.

Data Encoding and Formats

• UTF-8: A Unicode character encoding that can represent every character in the Unicode character set. It is a variable-width encoding, meaning that each character can take up to 4 bytes.
• ASCII: A character encoding that represents only the first 128 characters of the Unicode character set. It is a fixed-width encoding, where each character is represented by 1 byte.

Data Files

• CSV (Comma Separated Values): A plain text file that uses commas to separate values. Each line represents a single record, and each value is separated by a comma.
• XML (Extensible Markup Language): A markup language that uses tags to define data elements. It is a flexible and self-descriptive format, making it easy to read and parse.

Data Warehouse Architecture

• Single-tier architecture: A single server that stores and processes data.
• Two-tier architecture: A client-server architecture, where the client requests data and the server processes and returns the data.
• Three-tier architecture: A client-server architecture, where the client requests data, the application server processes the data, and the database server stores the data.

Data Warehouse Benefits

• Improved data quality: Data is cleansed and transformed, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
• Enhanced business decision-making: Data is easily accessible and analyzable, enabling better decision-making.
• Increased productivity: Data is centralized, reducing the time and effort required to gather and analyze data.

Learn about the characteristics, data encoding and formats, files, architecture, and benefits of a data warehouse. Understand the concepts and principles of data warehousing and its importance in business decision-making.