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reference a global var in yml file in dbt

Referencing a global variable in a .yml file in dbt

For example, if I have a column or a table name that is defined as a global in my dbt_project.yml file:

# dbt_project.yml

name: 'my_project'
version: '1.0.0'
config-version: 2

vars:
  my_var: 'my_special_var'

how can I reference my_var in a .yml file?

Solution

  • There are a couple of ways, if you use dbt core, you can export the environment variables e.g.

    export DBT_USER_NAME=andy

    then you can reference it in the yaml file:

    models:
  test_project:
    AA:
      databaseusername: {{ var("DBT_USER_NAME") }}

    you can also define variables in the yaml file

    vars:
  test_project:
    env: "dev"
    etl_schema: "etl"

...

models:
  test_project:
    AA:
      database: test_{{ var("env") }}_raw
      schema: {{ var("etl_schema") }}

    then overwrite the variable value in the command line

    dbt run --vars '{"env": "prod"}'