Editing Snowflake schema (section)

== Disadvantages ==
The primary disadvantage of the snowflake schema is that the additional levels of attribute normalization adds complexity to source query joins, when compared to the [[star schema]].

Snowflake schemas, in contrast to flat single table dimensions, have been heavily criticised. Their goal is assumed to be an efficient and compact storage of normalised data but this is at the significant cost of poor performance when browsing the joins required in this dimension.<ref>{{Cite book
|title = The Data Warehouse Toolkit
|edition = 1st
|last = Kimball
|first = Ralph
|author-link = Ralph Kimball
|publisher = Wiley
|year = 1996
|isbn = 0-471-15337-0
|chapter = 6: The Big Dimensions
|quote = Do not snowflake your dimensions, even if they are large
|pages = [https://archive.org/details/datawarehousetoo00kimb_0/page/95 95–98]
|chapter-url-access = registration
|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/datawarehousetoo00kimb_0/page/95
}}</ref> This disadvantage may have reduced in the years since it was first recognized, owing to better query performance within the browsing tools.