Splitting full date into day/month/quarter/year columns - sql

Question

I have a simple table structure, where my DATE column has yyyy-mm-dd format. I'd like to split all the dates and INSERT them in to my time dimension table, that contains day, month, quarter and year columns. I'm not sure how to get going with this (trying with query as insert into).
EXAMPLE: SPLIT 2010-03-01 AND INSERT 2010 into year column, 03 into month column, 01 into day column and 1 into quarter column.
Additionally I'd like to assign the names to specific date part (for example month_name for 1 is January), is it good practice to store date-name values inside same table?
Edit: I've just realized that I probably made big mistake? Is TIME dimension in DATA WAREHOUSE is supposed to store unique data only (for description purposes?)

Answer 1

Typically a time dimension implies time (hours, minutes, seconds) or datetime.
It sounds like you just need a date dimension. Most of the work is already done for you here: http://smehrozalam.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/t-sql-using-common-table-expressions-cte-to-generate-sequences/
If you are still in the design phase of the fact table, I'd recommend going with date rather than the YYYYMMDD ID format in the tutorial for your PK on the dimension. It's a byte cheaper per row and enables date math. Before SQL 2008, the int dateid format made sense. Now that date is available, it's a more appropriate choice.
As for uniqueness, for hierarchies and associated attribute relationships in ssas I'll typically combine the necessary columns to uniquely identify the period. For example:
SELECT
CAST(YEAR(GETDATE()) as char(4)) + ' ' + DATENAME(MONTH,GETDATE()) MonthUniqueName
, CAST(YEAR(GETDATE()) as char(4)) + ' Q' + CAST(DATEPART(QUARTER,GETDATE()) as char(1)) QuarterUniqueName
returns
MonthUniqueName QuarterUniqueName
2013 March 2013 Q1

Answer 2

Is this what you want?
select Datename(yy,yourDateColumn) as year, Datename(quarter,yourDateColumn), Datename(month, yourDateColumn),Datename(day, yourDatecolumn),CONVERT(varchar(3), yourDateColumn, 100) from yourTable
Assuming you have column type as DateTime
Insert into yourTable (yearColumn, quarterColumn, monthColumn, dayColumn) values
Datename(yy,yourDateColumn) , Datename(quarter,yourDateColumn), Datename(month, yourDateColumn),Datename(day, yourDatecolumn)

Answer 3

-- First solution: date is stored and day, month, year and quarter are computed
DECLARE #Table1 TABLE (
Dt DATE NOT NULL,
DD AS CONVERT(TINYINT, DATEPART(DAY, Dt)) PERSISTED,
MM AS CONVERT(TINYINT, DATEPART(MONTH, Dt)) PERSISTED,
YYYY AS CONVERT(SMALLINT, DATEPART(YEAR, Dt)) PERSISTED,
QQ AS CONVERT(TINYINT, DATEPART(QUARTER, Dt)) PERSISTED
);
INSERT #Table1
VALUES (GETDATE());
SELECT * FROM #Table1;
-- Second solution: day, month and year are stored and date and quarter are stored
DECLARE #Table2 TABLE (
Dt AS CONVERT(DATE, DATEADD(DAY, DD-1, DATEADD(MONTH, MM-1, DATEADD(YEAR, YYYY-1, CONVERT(DATE, '00010101',112))))) PERSISTED,
DD TINYINT NOT NULL CHECK(DD BETWEEN 1 AND 31),
MM TINYINT NOT NULL CHECK(MM BETWEEN 1 AND 12),
YYYY SMALLINT NOT NULL CHECK(YYYY BETWEEN 1 AND 9999),
QQ AS CONVERT(TINYINT, ((MM-1)/3)+1) PERSISTED
);
INSERT #Table2 (DD, MM, YYYY)
VALUES (9,3,2013);
SELECT * FROM #Table2;
Results:
Dt DD MM YYYY QQ
---------- ---- ---- ------ ----
2013-03-09 9 3 2013 1
Dt DD MM YYYY QQ
---------- ---- ---- ------ ----
2013-03-09 9 3 2013 1