The Data Vault Handbook - Concepts and Applications

ducing their size to a fixed length, hashing optimizes storage and retrieval operations, making these keys more manageable.

Lastly, unlike the use of sequences in Data Vault 1.0, hash keys enable us to circumvent dependencies during the loading process. Since the hashing of each business key is independent of others and consistently yields the same hash key for the same BK, the loading process can occur concurrently. This parallel loading capability enhances scalability and performance by opti- mizing the utilization of computational resources.

ADVANTAGES OF HASHING

— Consistency: Ensures uniformity across diverse source formats

— Performance: Enhances efficiency with fixed-length representations

— Optimization: Streamlines indexing and retrieval operations

— Parallelism: Enables concurrent, dependency-free loading processes

While there are multiple reasons to implement hash keys, the decision ulti- mately depends on whether the anticipated benefits align with your model- ing strategy and if they complement other factors, including your tool stack. There may be valid situations where using hash keys is significantly less performant, making it preferable to work directly with the business keys instead.