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Learn Data Build Tools ( DBT )

Using Macros from a Package

Learn how to use macros from a package.

We'll cover the following...

Adding a package to the macro-paths list

After running dbt deps, we might need to use the log_info macro from the dbt-utils package. This macro allows us to log a formatted message to the command line. If we try to call that macro directly, like this:

MySQL
{{ log_info("This is just a dummy model") }}
SELECT 1

We get a compilation error:

Compilation Error in model other (models/other.sql) 'log_info' is undefined. 
This can happen when calling a macro that does not exist. 
Check for typos and/or install package dependencies with "dbt deps".

This is because dbt does not know it can look for macros in that package.

To change that, we need to edit the macro-paths list in the dbt_project.yml file, and add the path to the macros folder in the dbt-utils package.

YAML
# Name your project! Project names should contain only lowercase characters
# and underscores. A good package name should reflect your organization's
# name or the intended use of these models
name: 'shop_project'
version: '1.0.0'
config-version: 2
# This setting configures which "profile" dbt uses for this project.
profile: 'shop'
# These configurations specify where dbt should look for different types of files.
# The `model-paths` config, for example, states that models in this project can be
# found in the "models/" directory. You probably won't need to change these!
model-paths: ["models"]
analysis-paths: ["analyses"]
test-paths: ["tests"]
seed-paths: ["seeds"]
macro-paths: ["macros", "dbt_packages/dbt_utils/macros"]
snapshot-paths: ["snapshots"]
target-path: "target"  # directory which will store compiled SQL files
clean-targets:         # directories to be removed by `dbt clean`
  - "target"
  - "dbt_packages"

This time, our log works:

16:28:05  2 of 2 START sql view model educative.other .............................. [RUN]
16:28:05  16:28:05 + This is just a dummy model
16:28:06  2 of 2 OK created sql view model educative.other .............................. [CREATE VIE
W (0 processed) in 0.91s]
Output of the dbt run command

Overriding package macros

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