About as_text filter

The as_text Jinja filter will coerce Jinja-compiled output back to text. It can be used in YAML rendering contexts where values must be provided as strings, rather than as the datatype that they look like.

Heads up

In dbt v0.17.1, native rendering is not enabled by default. As such, the as_text filter has no functional effect.

It is still possible to natively render specific values using the as_bool, as_number, and as_native filters.

Usage

In the example below, the as_text filter is used to assert that '' is an empty string. In a native rendering, '' would be coerced to the Python keyword None. This specification is necessary in v0.17.0, but it is not useful or necessary in later versions of dbt.

schema.yml

models:
  - name: orders
    columns:
      - name: order_status
        tests:
          - accepted_values:
              values: ['pending', 'shipped', "{{ '' | as_text }}"]

As of v0.17.1, native rendering does not occur by default, and the as_text specification is superfluous.

schema.yml

models:
  - name: orders
    columns:
      - name: order_status
        tests:
          - accepted_values:
              values: ['pending', 'shipped', '']