DBT Macros & Jinja Flashcards

Which delimiter is used in Jinja to output a value in dbt SQL files?

Answer: {{ ... }}

`{{ }}` is the Jinja expression delimiter that evaluates and renders a value into the SQL output.

What Jinja delimiter is used for control flow statements like `if`, `for`, and `set` in dbt?

Answer: {% ... %}

`{% %}` is used for Jinja statements such as `{% if %}`, `{% for %}`, and `{% set %}` which control logic without producing direct output.

How do you define a reusable macro in dbt?

Answer: Define it with {% macro name(args) %} ... {% endmacro %} in the macros/ folder

Macros are defined with `{% macro macro_name(arg1) %}...{% endmacro %}` blocks stored in any `.sql` file inside the `macros/` directory.

What built-in dbt variable returns the current target name (e.g., 'dev' or 'prod')?

Answer: {{ target.name }}

`{{ target.name }}` returns the name of the active target as defined in profiles.yml, commonly used to branch logic between environments.

Which dbt Jinja function safely reads an environment variable and supports a default value?

Answer: {{ env_var('VAR_NAME', 'default') }}

`env_var('NAME', 'default')` reads a process environment variable and returns the default if the variable is not set.

What does `{{ this }}` refer to inside a dbt model?

Answer: The relation (schema.table) of the model currently being built

`{{ this }}` is a special dbt variable that resolves to the fully qualified relation of the model being compiled, useful in incremental logic.