[postgis-users] What is dbt really is? Can it incorporate PostGIS's geospatial capabilities?

[Paul Ramsey]

DBT (Data Build Tool) is an open-source command-line tool that enables data analysts and engineers to transform data in their warehouse more effectively. It does this by allowing users to write modular SQL queries, which it then runs in the correct order with the appropriate dependencies. The core advantages of DBT include:

1. **Version Control**: DBT integrates with Git, allowing for version control of SQL models.
2. **Testing**: It supports data testing, enabling users to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their data transformations.
3. **Documentation**: DBT automatically generates documentation of the data models, making it easier to understand and collaborate on complex data transformation pipelines.
4. **Modularity**: By breaking down SQL queries into smaller modules, DBT helps in creating reusable and maintainable code.

Regarding incorporating PostGIS's geospatial capabilities, DBT itself does not perform data processing or analytics. It's a tool for orchestrating and testing SQL transformations that are executed in a data warehouse. However, if your data warehouse supports PostGIS (like Amazon Redshift, which has some PostGIS-like geospatial capabilities), you can write SQL transformations in DBT that utilize these geospatial functions.

So, while DBT does not directly incorporate PostGIS's capabilities, it can be used to manage and orchestrate SQL queries that leverage geospatial functions provided by your data warehouse. This means that if you're working with a data warehouse that supports geospatial queries (like PostGIS), you can use DBT to manage and test these queries as part of your broader data transformation pipeline.

> On Dec 15, 2023, at 10:13 AM, Shaozhong SHI via postgis-users <postgis-users at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Regards, David
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