Guide to data grain

Data grain is the combination of columns at which records in a table are unique. Ideally, this is captured in a single column, a unique primary key, but even then, there is descriptive grain behind that unique id. Let’s look at some examples to better understand this concept.

In the above table, each user_id is unique. This table is at the user grain.

In the above table, user_id is no longer unique. The combination of user_id and address creates a unique combination, thus this table is at the user address grain. We generally describe the grain conceptually based on the names of the columns that make it unique. A more realistic combination you might see in the wild would be a table that capture the state of all users at midnight every day. The combination of the captured updated_date and user_id would be unique, meaning our table is at user per day grain.

In both examples listed in the previous paragraph, we’d want to create a surrogate key of some sort from the combination of columns that comprise the grain. This gives our table a primary key, which is crucial for testing and optimization, and always a best practice. Typically, we’ll name this primary key based on the verbal description of the grain. For the latter example, we’d have user_per_day_id. This will be more solid and efficient than testing than repeatedly relying on the combination of those two columns.

Thinking deeply about grain is a crucial part of data modeling. As we design models, we need to consider the entities we’re describing, and what dimensions (time, attributes, etc.) might fan those entities out so they’re no longer unique, as well as how we want to deal with those. Do we need to apply transformations to deduplicate and collapse the grain? Or do we intentionally want to expand the grain out, like in our user per day example?

There’s no right answer here, we have the power to do either as it meets our needs. The key is just to make sure we have a clear sense of our grain for every model we create, that we’ve captured it in a primary key, and that we’re applying tests to ensure that our primary key column is unique and not null.