In a star schema, are foreign key constraints between facts and dimensions neccessary?

Question

I\'m getting my first exposure to data warehousing, and I’m wondering is it necessary to have foreign key constraints between facts and dimensions. Are there any major downs

Answer 1

The reasons for using integrity constraints in a data warehouse are exactly the same as in any other database: to guarantee the integrity of the data. Assuming you and your users care about the data being accurate then you need some way of ensuring that it remains so and that business rules are being correctly applied.