Streamline dbt Model Development with Notebook-Style Workspace

Interactively Build and Orchestrate Data Models

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Originally published at https://mathdatasimplified.com on June 5, 2023.

Motivation

dbt (data build tool) is a powerful tool for data transformation within the data warehouse.

However, it does come with some limitations, including the following:

1. Lack of Output Preview: With dbt core, it is not possible to preview the output of a model before building it, which can hinder the ability to validate and iterate on the data transformation process.
2. Limitations in Feature Engineering: Since SQL is dbt’s primary language, there are certain limitations when it comes to advanced feature engineering tasks. To perform complex feature engineering beyond the capabilities of SQL, additional tools or languages such as Python may be required.
3. Partial ETL Solution: While dbt excels in data transformation, it does not provide a comprehensive end-to-end solution for tasks like data loading, data extraction, and orchestration.

To mitigate some of these challenges, dbt Cloud offers features like developing data models, previewing outputs, and scheduling dbt jobs through a user-friendly web-based UI…