Time Series Model Error

Question

Time in my underlying data is represented as two columns
[Year] Char(4), [Month] Char(2).  I set them up as the key for my model.  The wizard shows them as being set to key.  However I get this error:

"Error (Data mining): The usage for the 'YEAR MONTH' column of the 'Time Series Model' mining model must be set to Key, because its source mining structure column is a key column."

What does the error mean?  Does the Key need to be the key of the time dimension or the key of the the fact tables?

I'm using SQL2005 June CTP.

Matthew Martin

Answer 1

You will need a single continuous-valued column to act as the key (key time) of the mining structure.

The answer to the question about dimension and fact table depends on your data and the problem you are trying to solve.

For instance, if your data looks like this

Time    Product     Sales
1         Milk           20
1         Bread        15
2         Milk           22
2         Bread        14
...

You would mark Time as KEY (which will become KEY TIME if you look at the column in the designer) and Product as KEY.