Simplify Data Transformation with DBT: A Step-by-Step Guide

Introduction

What is DBT?
Data Build Tool or simply DBT is an open-source command line tool that helps data analysts and data engineers transform data in a systematic way in the data warehouse. DBT is easy to use compared to other data tools as it can run efficiently with simple SQL select statements. There is no need to learn extra programming language just to transform the data. With a simple select statement, it can be acquired with DBT. DBT can only be used for the transformation of data but it provides a systematic step to do so. You can use DBT to modularize your analytics code, while also providing your data team with practices typically found in software engineering workflows.

Why DBT?
Mostly DBT is famous for its simplicity. Let me put more light on this. Anyone with basic SQL knowledge can use DBT. It simplifies the complex engineering processes with its simple design and concept. Anyone can build models, write test cases, and schedule jobs to produce reliable, actionable datasets for analytics.
The other main feature of DBT is version control. Yes, you read that right. DBT provides a built-in git connection. Now pushing your code to git is just one click away. I know this is not a big deal breaker but I have seen some engineers struggle with git. In DBT you just press a button to commit your code, you write a commit message, and boom your code is pushed. It’s as simple as that. Not just push, you can create new branches and send pull…