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If models can only be `select` statements, how do I insert records?

For those coming from an ETL (Extract Transform Load) paradigm, there's often a desire to write transformations as insert and update statements. In comparison, dbt will wrap your select query in a create table as statement, which can feel counter-productive.

  • If you wish to use insert statements for performance reasons (i.e. to reduce data that is processed), consider incremental models
  • If you wish to use insert statements since your source data is constantly changing (e.g. to create "Type 2 Slowly Changing Dimensions"), consider snapshotting your source data, and building models on top of your snaphots.

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