Usage Considerations: Summary Data and Detail Data - Advanced SQL Engine - Teradata Database

Database Design

Product
Advanced SQL Engine
Teradata Database
Release Number
17.05
17.00
Published
June 2020
Language
English (United States)
Last Update
2021-01-22
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qby1588121512748.ditamap
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dita:id
B035-1094
lifecycle
previous
Product Category
Teradata Vantageā„¢

This topic examines the nature of the data you keep in your data warehouse and attempts to indicate why storing detail data is a better idea, particularly for ad hoc tactical and decision support queries and data mining explorations.

Observing the Effects of Summarization

Suppose we have an application that gathers check stand scanner data and stores it in relational tables. The raw detail data captured by the scanner includes a system-generated transaction number, codes for the individual items purchased as part of the transaction, and the number of each item purchased. The table that contains this detail data is named Scanner Data in the following graphic:



The middle table, store_item_daily_sales, illustrates a first level summary of the data in scanner_data. Notice that where we knew which items sold at which store at which time of day in scanner_data, now we only know the quantity of an item sold for an entire business day. The clarity of the detail data has been replaced by a more fuzzy snapshot. Potential insights have been lost.

The right most table, store_item_weekly_sales, illustrates a further abstraction of the detail data. Now all we have is the quantity of each item sold by each store for an entire week. Still fewer insights can be garnered from the data.

Of course, the data could be further abstracted. Summarization can occur at many levels. The important lesson to be learned from this study is that summaries hide valuable information. Worse still, it is not possible to reverse summarize the data in order to regain the original detail. The sharper granularity is lost forever.

Consider this simple, and highly logical, query that an analyst might ask of the sales data: How effective was the mid-week promotion we ran on sales for an item on Tuesday and Wednesday? If the only data available for analysis is a unit volume by week entity, then it is not possible to answer the question. The answer to the question is to be found in the detail, and the analyst has no way to determine the effectiveness of the promotion.

Other basic questions that cannot be answered by summary data include the following:

  • What is the daily sales pattern for item 2 at any given store?
  • When a customer purchases item 2, what other items are most frequently purchased with it?
  • What is the profile of a customer who purchases item 2?

Information Value of Summary Data

The information value of summary data is extremely limited. As we have seen, summary data cannot answer questions about daily sales patterns by store, nor can it reveal what additional purchases were made in the same market basket, nor can it tell you anything at all about the individual customer who made the purchase.

What summary data can provide is summary answers and nothing more. This puts you in the position of always being reactive rather than proactive. Two classic retail dilemmas posed by this summary-only situation indicate that both extremes of a given problem can be caused by only having access to summary data:

  • An out-of-stock situation has only been discovered after it is too late to remedy the problem.
  • There is too much stock on hand, forcing an unplanned price reduction promotion to eliminate the unwanted inventories.

Proactive Use of Detail Data

Suppose the retailer in this case example used detail data to analyze which products tend to cluster in the same market basket. Once the product clusters have been determined, it is possible to rearrange the layout of shelf displays to encourage yet more of this buying behavior.

As another example, a retailer could use detail data to determine what types of customer tend to buy a particular product or product family. With this information in hand, the retailer could then target a specialized promotion to cross-sell those customers on other products.