In a star schema, which type of table stores measurable events or facts such as totals or counts?

• A. Dimension table
• B. Staging table
• C. Reference table
• D. Fact table

Answer: (D)

Measurable events or facts such as totals and counts are stored in the fact table. This table holds the numeric metrics and links to dimension tables through foreign keys, which makes it possible to aggregate data across different attributes like time, product, or customer. Dimension tables, in contrast, contain descriptive attributes that enrich analysis but don’t carry the core numeric measures. Staging tables are used during ETL to prepare data before loading into the schema, not as part of the analytic model. Reference tables provide static lookup values used for categorization or translation but don’t store the main metrics. So, the fact table is where these measurable events live.