Snowflake Schema
The Snowflake Schema is a logical arrangement of tables in a data warehouse that normalizes dimension tables to reduce data redundancy and improve data integrity. It extends the star schema by splitting dimension tables into multiple related tables, creating a structure that resembles a snowflake when diagrammed. This design is commonly used in dimensional modeling for business intelligence and analytics to handle complex hierarchical data relationships efficiently.
Developers should learn and use the Snowflake Schema when building data warehouses that require normalized dimensions to save storage space, maintain consistency in hierarchical data (e.g., product categories or geographic regions), and support complex queries with multiple levels of aggregation. It is particularly useful in scenarios where data integrity is critical, such as in large-scale enterprise systems with frequent updates to dimension attributes, though it may increase query complexity compared to star schemas.