When using the SCD Type 2 load method in SAS Data Integration Studio, which columns can be selected to check for changed data?

Question

Options

• Abusiness key columns
• BType 1 columns
• Cgenerated columns
• Dnon-key columns

• A
  3% (1)
• B
  9% (3)
• C
  16% (5)
• D
  72% (23)

Explanation

In SCD Type 2, the purpose of change detection is to identify when descriptive attributes have changed so a new historical record can be created - non-key columns (D) are exactly those descriptive attribute columns (e.g., address, status, name) that you want to track for changes, making them the correct choice.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (business key columns) - these identify the entity and remain constant across record versions; they're used for matching, not change detection.
• B (Type 1 columns) - Type 1 attributes are overwritten in place (no history kept), so they're handled by a different mechanism, not selected to trigger SCD Type 2 versioning.
• C (generated columns) - these are system-generated (surrogate keys, effective dates, current-row flags) and are outputs of the SCD process, not inputs used to detect changes.

Memory tip: Think of it as "non-key = the stuff that can change." The business key never changes (it's the anchor), but the non-key columns hold the real-world data that evolves over time - so those are the ones worth watching.

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