DBT (Data Build Tool) Fundamentals
Model warehouse data as SELECT statements in dbt, with refs, sources, and incremental models.
What dbt Is
dbt is the "T" in ELT: it transforms data inside your warehouse using SELECT statements. You define models (SELECTs) and dbt materialises them as tables or views, manages dependencies, and runs tests.
Why dbt?
Before dbt, transformations lived in ad-hoc SQL scripts, stored procedures, or Python jobs. dbt brings:
- Modular SQL as code, versioned in Git
- Dependency graph (ref()) instead of manual ordering
- Tests as first-class objects
- Documentation generation
All lessons in this course
- DBT (Data Build Tool) Fundamentals
- SQLFluff and Linting
- Testing SQL: dbt tests, Great Expectations
- CI for Schema Changes (GitHub Actions)