You're welcome Paul.
paul.pauldj54 (7/30/2012)
...the business keys always hold numeric values and they are defined as Strings...
A column containing values with leading zero's can only be a string.
...For a fact table with 482.866 records the query takes about 6 minutes to execute. I don't know how powerful the server is but is this a reasonable amount of time? ...
I'd say this is slow. Can you post the actual execution plan of the query? Save it as a .sqlplan file and post it here as an attachment.
Is the business key column the same datatype in all of the tables?
For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden