Paul Williams (3/24/2014)

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From a modelling perspective from what you have said, I would say your best bet is to create a Junk Dimension or Junk Dimensions depending upon the data in these extra 20 cols.

In that way you have proper dimension tables but should only need to create one or two Junk Dimension tables. In a DW you need to limit the Dimensions to as few as possible otherwise it becomes very difficult to maintain and also can become more complex for business users. Simplicity is the key if you wish your business users to get the max out of the DW.

Junk Dimensions are useful where you have data columns with cardinality where the data values don't vary a lot such as bit cols or Y/N cols that you have mentioned you have.

Lookup on Kimball website or similar to find out about Junk Dimensions for further info.

Hope that helps.