Data Warehousing: Fact Table (Definitions)

"A central table in a data warehouse that contains numerical measures and keys relating facts to a dimension table. Fact tables contain data that describes a specific event within a business, such as a bank transaction or product sale. See also data warehouse; dimension table; snowflake schema; star join; star schema." (Microsoft Corporation, "SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Training Kit", 1999)

"The relational database table that contains values for one or more measures at the lowest level of detail for one or more dimensions." (Reed Jacobsen & Stacia Misner, "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step", 2006)

"A table in a star schema that contains facts and foreign keys that reference dimension tables. Fact tables may also contain degenerate dimensions." (Christopher Adamson, "Mastering Data Warehouse Aggregates", 2006)

"A central table in a data warehouse schema that contains numeric measures and keys relating facts to dimension tables. Fact tables contain data that describes specific events within a business, such as bank transactions or product sales." (Jim Joseph et al, "Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 Reporting Services Unleashed", 2009)

"In the dimensional data model, the middle table that contains the facts or metrics of the business as attributes in the table. Sales units, sales dollars, costs, and profit margin are examples of business metrics that are analyzed." (Paulraj Ponniah, "Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals", 2010)

"The dominating table in a data warehouse and its star schema, containing dimension attributes and data measures at the individual data level." (Toby J Teorey, ", Database Modeling and Design 4th Ed", 2010)

"A central table in a dimensional model that contains numerical measures and key facts relating to dimension tables." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures 2nd Ed", 2012)

"The data structure where basic facts in a star join are stored" (Daniel Linstedt & W H Inmon, "Data Architecture: A Primer for the Data Scientist", 2014)

"A relational table that contains facts, such as units sold or cost of goods, and foreign keys that link the fact table to each dimension table. See also star join." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)