There is a common need in analytics and reporting to aggregate data based on date attributes. These may include weekdays, holidays, quarters, or specific times of the year. Crunching these metrics on-the-fly can be slow and inefficient.

Calendar tables allow the complex conversions, definitions, and date-related metadata to be calculated ahead of time and stored in a static, reliable structure. We can then use this table to avoid the need to perform any date math on the fly. This not only saves time and computing resources, but also allows more complex analytics to be performed that would otherwise be very challenging.

This session delves into the design, implementation, and use of calendar tables, providing plenty of demos that illustrate their value and just how much fun they are!