I use both MS and Sybase and I don't know a Domains function, but there is a
Domains view in the INFORMATION_SCHEMA in MS.

From Books OnLine : Contains one row for each user-defined data type
accessible to the current user in the current database. The
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.DOMAINS view is based on the spt_data type_info,
systypes, syscomments, sysconfigures, and syscharsets system tables.

Star and snowflakes refer to database design patterns usually found in
dataware houses.
* A star is a single fact table (detailed data) surrounded by lookup or code
tables that decrypt the codes used in the fact table, so there is only oe
level of join to get from detail to description
* A snow flake is a star with additional 'wings', joins off the code tables
to other code tables, so there may need to be multi hop joining in your
selects.
The key to both is the central or core fact table.

A good quick intro to this is chapter 1 of the DataWarehouse Toolkit book by
Ralph Kimball (and the book is filled with example implimentations).

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edwin Uy " <db2udbdba-ezmlmshield-x31676030.[Email address protected]
To: "LazyDBA Discussion" <[Email address protected]
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 2:45 AM
Subject: DOMAINS function ... in MSSQL ??? SNOWFLAKEs and STAR schemas


> Hi all,
>
> Went into an interview session with a bunch of soldiers yesterday ... i
> believe i handled the Oracle questions pretty well, the MS-SQL guru is
> the one that's giving me a hard time 'coz he knows I prefer Larry from
> Bill. Anyway, he mentioned something about DOMAINS function that he said
> is not well know but is a feature/function that is very useful in
> MS-SQL, most especially used when creating a table. I browse thru the
> web and I can't find any article about it. Anyone out there who knows
> what is it? Also can anyone give a short definition SNOWFLAKE and STAR
> schemas used in OLAP ??? I'll search the web for more details but I just
> want a concise definition first if they're 'interesting' at all or not
> ...
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> EDWIN ONG UY
> \\|//
> (o o)
> ^"^"^"^"^"^oOOo"^(_)^"oOOo^"^"^"^"^"^"^"^"^"^"^
>
> "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your
> life." --Confucius
> "How do I work? I grope." -- Albert Einstein
> "Experience is the best teacher, enrolling in the class is the biggest
> problem." -- Anonymous
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> PLEASE CLICK REPLY-ALL TO SEND A REPLY TO EVERYONE
> website: http://www.LazyDBA.com
> To unsubscribe: http://www.lazydba.com/unsubscribe.html
>
>

DB2 & UDB email list listserv db2-l LazyDBA home page