This book addresses all aspects of constructing star schemas within Oracle data warehouses, from modeling and design through high-speed loads and lightning fast queries. The book delivers meaningful examples complemented by empirical samples and benchmarks, such that readers will learn more than just the mechanics. This book transforms readers into subject matter experts for dimensional modeling, star schemas and data warehousing in general for the Oracle database environment. This book is based on research conducted for the multi-terabyte data warehouse for the 7-Eleven Corporation. Star schema: a data warehouse design that enhances the performance of multidimensional queries on traditional relational databases. One fact table is surrounded by a series of related tables. Data is joined from one of the points to the center, providing a so called "star query." Previously announced in 2/2003 PTG catalog.