# Analyses

## Overview

dbt's notion of `models` makes it easy for data teams to version control and collaborate on data transformations. Sometimes though, a certain SQL statement doesn't quite fit into the mold of a dbt model. These more "analytical" SQL files can be versioned inside of your dbt project using the `analysis` functionality of dbt.

Any `.sql` files found in the `analyses/` directory of a dbt project will be compiled, but not executed. This means that analysts can use dbt functionality like `{{ ref(...) }}` to select from models in an environment-agnostic way.

In practice, an analysis file might look like this (via the [open source Quickbooks models](https://github.com/dbt-labs/quickbooks)):

analyses/running\_total\_by\_account.sql

```sql
-- analyses/running_total_by_account.sql

with journal_entries as (

  select *
  from {{ ref('quickbooks_adjusted_journal_entries') }}

), accounts as (

  select *
  from {{ ref('quickbooks_accounts_transformed') }}

)

select
  txn_date,
  account_id,
  adjusted_amount,
  description,
  account_name,
  sum(adjusted_amount) over (partition by account_id order by id rows unbounded preceding)
from journal_entries
order by account_id, id
```

You can configure individual analyses in their property file. For example:

analyses/\<filename>.yml

```yaml
analyses:
  - name: running_total_by_account
    description: Calculates the running total of adjusted amounts per account over time.
    config:
      enabled: true
      docs:
        show: true
        node_color: purple
      tags: ['finance', 'accounting']
    columns:
      - name: account_id
        description: The unique identifier for the account.
      - name: adjusted_amount
        description: The adjusted transaction amount for the account.
```

For more information, refer to [Analysis properties](../../reference/analysis-properties.md).

(Applies to dbt v1.12 and later)

## Project-level configuration

You can also configure analyses at the project level in `dbt_project.yml`.

To configure analyses at the project level, set the [`require_corrected_analysis_fqns`](../../reference/global-configs/behavior-flags/require_corrected_analysis_fqns.md) flag to `true` and add an `analyses` block in your `dbt_project.yml`. The project-level configuration applies to existing analyses in the `analyses/` folder — for example, setting `+enabled: false` disables them all.

dbt\_project.yml

```yaml
flags:
  require_corrected_analysis_fqns: true

analyses:
  +enabled: true | false
```

## Compiling analyses

To compile this analysis into runnable sql, run:

```text
dbt compile
```

Then, look for the compiled SQL file in `target/compiled/{project name}/analyses/running_total_by_account.sql`. This SQL can then be pasted into a data visualization tool, for instance. Note that no `running_total_by_account` relation will be materialized in the database as this is an `analysis`, not a `model`.

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