column_types

Description

Optionally specify the database type of columns in a seed, by providing a dictionary where the keys are the column names, and the values are a valid datatype (this varies across databases).

Without specifying this, dbt will infer the datatype based on the column values in your seed file.

Usage

Specify column types in your dbt_project.yml file:

dbt_project.yml

seeds:
  jaffle_shop:
    country_codes:
      +column_types:
        country_code: varchar(2)
        country_name: varchar(32)

Or:

seeds/properties.yml

version: 2

seeds:
  - name: country_codes
    config:
      column_types:
        country_code: varchar(2)
        country_name: varchar(32)

If you have previously run dbt seed, you'll need to run dbt seed --full-refresh for the changes to take effect.

Note that you will need to use the fully directory path of a seed when configuring column_types. For example, for a seed file at seeds/marketing/utm_mappings.csv, you will need to configure it like so:

dbt_project.yml

seeds:
  jaffle_shop:
    marketing:
      utm_mappings:
        +column_types:
          ...

Examples

Use a varchar column type to preserve leading zeros in a zipcode

(Note: preservation of leading zeros works for v0.16.0 onwards)

dbt_project.yml

seeds:
  jaffle_shop: # you must include the project name
    warehouse_locations:
      +column_types:
        zipcode: varchar(5)

Recommendation

Use this configuration only when required, i.e. when the type inference is not working as expected. Otherwise you can omit this configuration.

Troubleshooting

Note: The column_types configuration is case-sensitive, regardless of quoting configuration. If you specify a column as Country_Name in your Seed, you should reference it as Country_Name, and not country_name.