Joining date dimension table to data table with multiple dates

[Anonymous]

I have a data table that has about 10 columns of dates. Enter date, Due date, Ship Date, Quoted date....

Does it matter what date I create the relationship to with my date dimensions table? Some date column, like Ship Date, will have some empty rows because they haven't shipped so I wouldn't use that column but will it effect my reports differently based on what date column I do use?

[ankitpatira · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous It depends on your requirement. Say you're trying to analyse count of orders from your fact table and you create relationship between shipdate column in fact table and date dimension table then if you use Month from date dimension and are trying to count number of orders you will not get the correct figure since shipdate columns would have blanks.