How to populate TYPE in the dbt Docs?

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How do I fill in the column’s data type in the generated dbt docs? I referred to this column_types | dbt Developer Hub but that’s only for seed file and doesn’t seem to work for models. I tried using CAST in the table’s transformation code but TYPE is still blank when I generate the docs afterwards…

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dbt gets the type information by querying the model when the docs are generated. Was the model run before the docs were generated?

If so, I wonder if it could be that the adapter doesn’t support it, which warehouse are you on?

3

It is possible to set data types on columns for models, sources etc as well: columns | dbt Developer Hub

However as @jaypeedevlin said, you shouldn’t need to - dbt should check your database’s information_schema or equivalent. Have a look at your logs when you run dbt docs generate - if dbt can’t access the information schema with the account it’s using, you may need to grant that user permissions, as shown by an error like this (Redshift example):

Warning: The database user “dbt_joel” has insufficient permissions to query the “svv_table_info” table. Please grant SELECT permissions on this table to the “dbt_joel” user to fetch extended table details from Redshift.

4

In my case, I have the datatype in my metadata.json, but it is not getting rendered in my dbt docs serve.
example

"HOLIDAY_DENSITY": {
            "name": "HOLIDAY_DENSITY",
            "description": "Description Not Available",
            "meta": {},
            "data_type": "DOUBLE",
            "constraints": [],
            "quote": null,
            "tags": []
        }