CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-bigquerydbt
Falkenstein
Falkenstein

Reputation: 73

DBT dynamic config

I have a generic test and need it to be always saved under a particular name for the given table it is running on, e.g. on table report_revenue the generated generic test name will always be diff_check_report_revenue. Right now the default dbt naming behavior for generic tests is kinda messy (it sets the test name based on the test config, which is a great idea for most cases, but unfortunately not for my particular one). According to the docs it looks like the [alias]https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/resource-configs/alias is exactly what I need. However, I also need to set the name dynamically based on the table that is tested. I know it can be set in the yml config by setting the field alias, but I hope there might be a more elegant solution. When I try the following:

{{
    config({
        "severity": 'warn',
        "tags": ["diff_check"],
        "alias": 'diff_check_' + {{ model | replace("XXXXXXX") | trim }}
    })
}}

It just doesn't work and dbt completely ignores the alias property. model is the relation on which the test is running. It's probably just my own wrong syntax, but I'm stuck and humbly asking for advice. Thanks a lot in advance!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 633

Answers (1)

tconbeer
tconbeer

Reputation: 5815

The docs are super confusing on test config, since they group together generic tests and singular tests, and the behavior is different.

You can use a config() block inside the definition for a generic test to configure it, and some keys (e.g., severity) work fine, but alias is not one of them.

I think alias is meant for singular tests only. To give generic tests a unique identifier (only possible since v1.1), you are supposed to use the name property (not config). Docs. Does this make sense? No. Does it make it easy for you to do what you want to do? Also no.

I'll point out that the default naming convention for a generic test includes the name of the test followed by the name of the model, but assuming that isn't good enough, your only option will be to add a name property to every test, where you define the test in the properties (fka schema.yml) file. And it looks like the name property doesn't jinja-template its value (so you can't use jinja to populate the test name). So you'll have to do a lot of this:

models:
  - name: my_model
    tests:
      - diff_check:
          name: diff_check_my_model

You could fork dbt-core. The relevant code is here.

Upvotes: 0

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