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alias

Specify a custom alias for a model in your dbt_project.yml file or config block.

For example, if you have a model that calculates sales_total and want to give it a more user-friendly alias, you can alias it like this:

dbt_project.yml
models:
your_project:
sales_total:
+alias: sales_dashboard

This would return analytics.finance.sales_dashboard in the database, instead of the default analytics.finance.sales_total.

Definition

Optionally specify a custom alias for a model, data test, snapshot, or seed.

When dbt creates a relation (table/view) in a database, it creates it as: {{ database }}.{{ schema }}.{{ identifier }}, e.g. analytics.finance.payments

The standard behavior of dbt is:

  • If a custom alias is not specified, the identifier of the relation is the resource name (i.e. the filename).
  • If a custom alias is specified, the identifier of the relation is the {{ alias }} value.

Note With an ephemeral model, dbt will always apply the prefix __dbt__cte__ to the CTE identifier. This means that if an alias is set on an ephemeral model, then its CTE identifier will be __dbt__cte__{{ alias }}, but if no alias is set then its identifier will be __dbt__cte__{{ filename }}.

To learn more about changing the way that dbt generates a relation's identifier, read Using Aliases.

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