DBT snapshot with user defined dbt_valid_from and dbt_valid_to and dbt_updated_at

[ashwintastic]

Is this your first time submitting a feature request?

• I have read the expectations for open source contributors
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this feature
• I am requesting a straightforward extension of existing dbt functionality, rather than a Big Idea better suited to a discussion

Describe the feature

Currently dbt snapshot generates table where time dimension columns are dbt_valid_from and dbt_valid_to.
The ask is to give the flexibility to dbt snapshot wherein a user can pass their columns name like instead of dbt_valid_from could have start_date and dbt_valid_to => end_date.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Who will this benefit?

No response

Are you interested in contributing this feature?

No response

Anything else?

No response

[dbeatty10]

Thanks for proposing this idea @ashwintastic ! 💡

We aren't planning on allowing custom configuration of the column names produced by snapshots. But you can still achieve your goal of changing into any column names you like by creating a pass-through view like this:

models/your_snapshot_passthru.sql

{{ config(materialized="view") }}

select
  -- the rest of your columns here
  dbt_valid_from as start_date,
  dbt_valid_to as end_date

from {{ ref("your_snapshot") }}

[ashwintastic]

If user-defined column names are not allowed, database column names become dependent on DBT. Imagine in the future, there could be a scenario where we receive an update from DBT stating that from XYZ version onwards, DBT doesn't support certain column names (dbt_valid_from , dbt_valid_to . This could potentially have a significant impact on the product using DBT.

[graciegoheen]

Hi @ashwintastic just as a heads up we opened up a new issue for this feature request #10185