In a classic dimensional schema, each dimension attached to a fact table has a single value consistent with the fact table’s grain. But there are a number of situations in which a dimension is legitimately multivalued. For example, a patient receiving a healthcare treatment may have multiple simultaneous diagnoses. In these cases, the multivalued dimension must be attached to the fact table through a group dimension key to a bridge table with one row for each simultaneous diagnosis in a group.

A multivalued bridge table may need to be based on a type 2 slowly changing dimension. For example, the bridge table that implements the many-to-many relationship between bank accounts and individual customers usually must be based on type 2 account and customer dimensions.  In this case, to prevent incorrect linkages between accounts and customers, the bridge table must include effective and expiration date/time stamps, and the requesting application must constrain the bridge table to a speciﬁc moment in time to produce a consistent snapshot.