quote

Models
Sources
Seeds
Snapshots
Analyses

models/schema.yml

version: 2
models:  - name: model_name    columns:      - name: column_name        quote: true | false

models/schema.yml

version: 2
sources:  - name: source_name    tables:      - name: table_name        columns:          - name: column_name            quote: true | false

data/schema.yml

version: 2
seeds:  - name: seed_name    columns:      - name: column_name        quote: true | false

snapshots/schema.yml

version: 2
snapshots:  - name: snapshot_name    columns:      - name: column_name        quote: true | false

analysis/schema.yml

version: 2
analyses:  - name: analysis_name    columns:      - name: column_name        quote: true | false

Definition#

The quote field can be used to enable or disable quoting for column names.

▶Changelog

Default#

The default quoting value is false

Explanation#

This is particularly relevant to those using Snowflake, where quoting can be particularly fickle.

This property is useful when:

A source table has a column that needs to be quoted to be selected, for example, to preserve column casing
A seed was created with quote_columns: true (docs) on Snowflake
A model uses quotes in the SQL, potentially to work around the use of reserved words

select user_group as "group"

Without setting quote: true:

Schema tests applied to this column may fail due to invalid SQL
Documentation may not render correctly, e.g. group and "group" may not be matched as the same column name.

Example#

Add tests to a quoted column in a source table#

This is especially relevant if using Snowflake:

version: 2
sources:  - name: stripe    tables:      - name: payment        columns:          - name: orderID            quote: true            tests:              - not_null

Without quote: true, the following error will occur:

$ dbt test -s source:stripe.*Running with dbt=0.16.1Found 7 models, 22 tests, 0 snapshots, 0 analyses, 130 macros, 0 operations, 0 seed files, 4 sources
13:33:37 | Concurrency: 4 threads (target='learn')13:33:37 |13:33:37 | 1 of 1 START test source_not_null_stripe_payment_order_id............ [RUN]13:33:39 | 1 of 1 ERROR source_not_null_stripe_payment_order_id................. [ERROR in 1.89s]13:33:39 |13:33:39 | Finished running 1 tests in 6.43s.
Completed with 1 error and 0 warnings:
Database Error in test source_not_null_stripe_payment_order_id (models/staging/stripe/src_stripe.yml)  000904 (42000): SQL compilation error: error line 3 at position 6  invalid identifier 'ORDERID'  compiled SQL at target/compiled/jaffle_shop/schema_test/source_not_null_stripe_payment_orderID.sql

This is because dbt is trying to run:

select count(*)from raw.stripe.paymentwhere orderID is null

Instead of:

select count(*)from raw.stripe.paymentwhere "orderID" is null