Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
The associative data model
After reviewing the theory of dimensional data modeling, it is now time to apply
those concepts to how QlikView works. By now, we know that a QlikView document
is, in general terms, used to visualize data. This data can come from disparate
sources: a database, Excel files, a legacy system, or even the Web. But how do we put
all this data together? The answer is: through the associative data model.
The associative data model can be said to be equal in structure to a dimensional
model. However, a data model of any type in QlikView becomes an associative
data model because it not only contains the different source tables from which
the charts get the data, but also keeps them associated in a way which allows the
QlikView document and its users to consume information and aggregate data cross
dimensionally in any possible way. In a QlikView data model, all of the field values
from all of the tables in the model are automatically associated among themselves
based purely on the field names.
Let's look at the Airline Operations data model built in an earlier example, from
Chapter 3
,
Data Sources
:
