@Martin: I originally thought that there was nothing "magical" about building a data warehouse, but then I did a little research and received all sorts of feedback about how data warehouse projects have notorious failure rates, that data warehouse design IS different than normal RDBMS - and then there's the whole thing about data marts vs. warehouses, Kimball vs. Inmon, star schemas, EAV tables, and so on. So I started to think that maybe I needed to get a little better read on the subject.
On Sep 23, 3:15 am, "Martin P. Hellwig" <martin.hell...@dcuktec.org> wrote: > snfctech wrote: > > Thanks for your replies, Sean and Martin. > > > I agree that the ETL tools are complex in themselves, and I may as > > well spend that learning curve on a lower-level tool-set that has the > > added value of greater flexibility. > > > Can you suggest a good book or tutorial to help me build a data > > warehouse in python? Bill Inmon's "Building the Data Warehouse" is 17 > > years old, and I've been cautioned against Kimball. > > > Thanks. > > <cut> > > Data warehouse isn't something magical, it is just another database, > albeit containing multiple datasets gathered from foreign resources in > possibly multiple formats. > > Depending on your purpose of what you want, you design your tables the > way you usually do. For example if you only want reporting, you might > want to build your tables in such a way so it makes your life easier to > build the actual report. > > Now you have an empty database containing the fields you wish for the > report and have filled database(s) containing data from the user > application. Now you use Python to fill the empty database, tada, you > have a Data warehouse and used Python for ETL processing. > > So if you already have some insights in creating tables in a database, > you are all set. Most likely you will go through a number of iterations > before you are happy with the result though. > > There is no book substitute for applying theory, experience and common > sense to a problem you want to solve, unless you write it yourself for > that specific situation. > > -- > MPHhttp://blog.dcuktec.com > 'If consumed, best digested with added seasoning to own preference.' -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
