1. Foundations of dbt
Welcome to our first course on dbt! I'm Mike, a Data Engineering Consultant. I have over 15 years experience working with multi-terabyte datasets with tools like SQL, dbt, Airflow and Spark. I can't wait to guide you through this course on dbt, a powerful tool for data transformation and analytics engineering. In this intro video, we'll outline the course goals and preview of what's to expect.
2. Course goals
Through this course, you'll understand the core concepts of dbt, its practical applications, and why it's essential for data professionals today. By the end of this course, you'll be able to navigate a dbt project, write basic dbt models, and execute them effectively. Most importantly, you'll become familiar with one of the most popular data engineering tools.
3. Prerequisite knowledge
Let’s discuss the prerequisites—is this course right for you? Some prior experience with SQL is required, and you should also have at least some familiarity with using the command-line. We’ll make sure to cover foundational concepts so you can follow along confidently, but a basic understanding of data pipelines or data modeling will help you get the most out of this course.
4. Interactive learning
Before we continue with the course, let's take a quick look at the interactive learning environment. For several exercises in this course, we'll be using the IDE exercise. IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment, and typically contains several tools together in one window to speed any programming exercises. If you've used something like Visual Studio Code (VSCode), you've used an IDE before. The IDE we'll be using consists of three primary parts.
5. Interactive learning - File picker
The first component is the file picker on the left side of the IDE. The file picker allows selecting and moving files around within the directory structure.
6. Interactive learning - Code Editor
Next, we'll be using the code editor in the upper right portion of the window. This is where you can select between open files and read or make modifications to file contents. Note that any changes you make are automatically saved.
7. Interactive learning - Terminal
Finally, the lower right section represents a terminal window where you can execute various commands as required by the exercise. Don't worry too much about these right now - it will make more sense as you work through the exercises.
8. Let's practice!
Ok, it’s time to get started! Dive into your first exercise, and we'll be back in the next video.