Difference between Fact table and Dimension table?

Question

When reading a book for business objects, I came across the term- fact table and dimension table.

I am trying to understand what is the different between Dimension table and Fact table?

I read couple of articles on the internet but I was not able to understand clearly..

Any simple example will help me to understand better?

Answer 1

In Data Warehouse Modeling, a star schema and a snowflake schema consists of Fact and Dimension tables.

Fact Table:

• It contains all the primary keys of the dimension and associated facts or measures(is a property on which calculations can be made) like quantity sold, amount sold and average sales.

Dimension Tables:

• Dimension tables provides descriptive information for all the measurements recorded in fact table.
• Dimensions are relatively very small as comparison of fact table.
• Commonly used dimensions are people, products, place and time.

image source