What are they? How do they work? -- What are Facts and Attributes? Facts and Attributes are two different types (classes) of data columns. They refer to what they represent or model in real-life. are just the roles that Inzata assigns to your data automatically. Every column in your data is either a Fact or an Attribute. By default, Inzata automatically assigns a Fact or Attribute role to every column based on that column’s properties and context when the data is loaded, but you can switch this role for any column manually, if you wish. Why assign roles to my data? Your ultimate goal is to analyze that data to answer questions. Your data are going to have different roles to play in your Inzata Data Warehouse! Remember, your data is merely there to tell a story about something that happened in real life. And in real life, there are people, places and things (Sometimes called ‘entities’) that interact and relate to one another (‘relationship’) and sometimes do things (‘activities’). Attributes contain qualitative values (such as names, dates, or geographical data). You can use attributes to categorize, segment, filter and reveal the details in your data. Attributes affect the level of detail in the view. Attributes can be either alpha, or numeric, or a combination of both. Attributes can also change over time. An example of a numeric Attribute would be something like Zip Code or Phone Number. Facts on the other hand contain quantitative (or numeric) values. Facts are a record of something that happened in the real world. They never change. They’re a standing record of something that happened in the past. Examples of Facts would include the details about a product sale such as “Transaction Total†or “Purchase Quantityâ€. Other examples would include a column called “Temperature†containing temperature readings taken every hour.
