Data Build Tool (dbt) is a tool that allows easy data transformations.

I keep hearing about dbt from various people but hadn't really understood what it did. It basically allows you to transform data that is already in a data warehouse using simple select statements. It's the T in ELT (Extract, Load, Transform).

A dbt project is made up of .sql files, each with a single select statement. When you run dbt it will build a view in your data warehouse based on the select statement. It takes care of all the boilerplate and ordering of execution. Dbt comes with connectors for all the main data warehouses.

🛎️ Why this matters: This tool allows anybody who can write select statements transform data.