Granularity (Attributes)
The degree to which a single characteristic is subdivided in attributes.
- •Enables precise data capture and more detailed analysis.
- •Improved flexibility in querying, filtering, and aggregating data based on specific sub-components.
- •Better support for complex business rules that depend on fine-grained attribute details.
- •Enhanced data quality as validation can be applied to more specific data points.
- •Loss of detail, limiting the depth of analysis and insight generation (e.g., cannot analyze by city if only full address is stored).
- •Difficulty in applying specific business rules or validations if attributes are too broad.
- •Increased complexity in parsing or splitting combined attributes for specific uses.
- •Inability to answer specific business questions requiring finer detail.
Story
Logistics: 'Address' is broken down into separate, well-defined attributes: StreetAddress, City, PostalCode, State, Country.
Contact Management: 'FirstName', 'MiddleName', 'LastName' are stored as distinct attributes.
Event Logging: 'EventTimestamp', 'EventType', 'UserID' are stored as individual attributes for easier filtering and analysis.
Logistics: A single 'Address' attribute in the customer table holds the entire address: Street, City, Postal Code, and Country, making it hard to query by city.
Contact Management: A 'FullName' attribute stores first name, middle name, and last name together.
Event Logging: A single 'EventDetails' attribute contains timestamp, event type, and user ID concatenated together.