What Type of information does a Fact Table in a Database contain?

In a database context, particularly within the scope of data warehousing, a Fact Table is a central component of a star schema or a snowflake schema.
The Fact Table primarily contains facts, or measures, and keys to dimension tables. The measures are usually numeric and additive, meaning they can be used in calculations like sums and averages to analyze the data. These measures are related to a business process or a business question that the data warehouse is built to answer.
For instance, in a retail scenario, a Fact Table may include measures such as

1. total sales,
2. total quantity sold, and
3. total discounts given.

Fact Tables also contain foreign keys, which uniquely identify the associated rows in the dimension tables. These foreign keys act as the links between the Fact Table and its associated Dimension Tables. For example, a sales Fact Table may contain keys linking it to dimension tables such as Date, Product, Store, and Customer.
The essential information contained in a Fact Table can be summarized as follows:

1. Measures (Facts): Numeric data that can be analyzed. It represents the performance or behavior of the business processes.
2. Foreign Keys: These keys are used to ensure referential integrity and create relations between each dimension table in the schema.

Fact Tables form the cornerstone of any data warehouse, enabling the storage and analysis of large amounts of data in a structured and efficient manner. They are particularly useful in supporting data analysis and business intelligence activities, allowing for complex queries and data aggregation tasks.