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Sharad_Pujari
Calcite | Level 5

what is difference between look up transformation and join transofrmation.???

 

3 REPLIES 3
Kurt_Bremser
Super User

In a lookup transformation, the lookup tables are loaded into memory at the start, and the main table is processed sequentially.

In a join transformation, all tables need to be sorted (often done implicitly by a SQL step) and then merged along the by variables.

 

Joins should be done when the contributing tables are quite large, or there is a m:n relationship.

Lookups are good for smaller lookup tables (small just meaning they should fit into memory) and 1:n relationships (lookup to main); one can do several lookups in one sequential step.

LinusH
Tourmaline | Level 20
There's a scenario where join should be preferred, when the master and lookup tabke(s) reside on an external data source. SQL can relatively easy be pushed down to the RDBMS.
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