Explore key concepts of MicroStrategy metadata architecture and schema objects. This quiz helps reinforce foundational understanding of facts, attributes, hierarchies, and their relationships in a business intelligence environment.
Which of the following best describes the primary purpose of metadata in a business intelligence platform?
Explanation: The correct answer is 'To store information about data structures and relationships' because metadata provides essential information about how data is organized and connected. Creating colorful dashboards is a function of reporting tools, not of metadata directly. Backing up user files and encrypting data may involve metadata, but these are not its primary purposes. Metadata serves as a blueprint for building and understanding the data warehouse.
If 'Customer Name' is stored as a schema object, what type of object is it usually classified as?
Explanation: ‘Attribute’ is correct because ‘Customer Name’ describes a characteristic or property associated with business data, typically used for grouping or filtering. ‘Fact’ represents measurable, quantitative data. ‘Metric’ usually refers to calculations or aggregations. ‘Transform’ is used for time-based or other advanced analytical operations, which is unrelated here.
What is a common use of a 'Fact' schema object when creating analytical reports?
Explanation: Facts represent quantitative data, like sales or revenue, which can be summed or averaged during report generation. Grouping data is usually handled by attributes, not facts. Facts do not define user interface colors or security; those are managed elsewhere in the system. This makes 'Storing numerical values for aggregation' the correct option.
In the context of schema design, what is the role of a hierarchy by example such as 'Year u003E Quarter u003E Month'?
Explanation: Hierarchies arrange attributes to support drilling up or down for analysis, like moving from years to months. Encrypting data, storing passwords, and defining themes are unrelated to attribute hierarchies and handled by other system components. The correct answer directly reflects the purpose of hierarchies in schema models.
Which option best defines a 'Metric' as used in metadata models?
Explanation: A metric is typically a formula or calculation, like 'Total Sales', derived from one or more facts. A unique identifier usually refers to a primary key. A collection of unrelated facts is not an accurate or useful concept, and a storage location refers to database infrastructure, not a metric. Hence, the correct answer is calculation or aggregation.
When an attribute is defined using more than one column, what is this structure commonly called?
Explanation: A composite key uses multiple columns to uniquely identify a record, which is essential when no single column is unique. A single key uses only one column, and is not applicable here. Conditional fact and dynamic metric are unrelated terms with different meanings, making composite key the correct choice.
How do schema objects like attributes and facts typically relate to each other in a business intelligence system?
Explanation: Attributes provide dimensional context (like product or region), and facts are the quantitative data (like sales amount), often analyzed together. The other options describe inaccurate relationships—attributes do not exclusively hold confidential data, nor do they manage access. Typically, attributes and facts are stored together within the same schema.
What is the main role of lookup tables in a schema design, for example, a table holding 'Product Category Names'?
Explanation: Lookup tables store values such as names or descriptions that correspond to attribute identifiers, improving report readability. Metric calculations, report scheduling, and user authentication are not the primary purposes of lookup tables. Only the correct option accurately matches their purpose in schema design.
Which table is most likely to be considered a 'fact table' in a typical reporting database?
Explanation: A fact table stores measurable events, such as each sales transaction, and includes references to related attributes like products. Lookup or directory tables (Calendar_Lookup, Employee_Directory, and Product_Descriptions) primarily provide descriptive or lookup information and are not used to store numeric measures for analysis.
If 'City' is associated with 'State' and 'Country' in schema objects, what type of relationship does this represent?
Explanation: The connection between 'City', 'State', and 'Country' models a hierarchy where attributes roll up into broader categories. Treasury relationship and sequential transition are not related to attribute connections. Describing them as an unrelated data set would mean the attributes share no logical link, which is incorrect.