SELECT
*
FROM {{ this }}
compiled into
select * from project.dataset.result but the expected outcome is project.dataset.table_a.
similar issue SO thread: dbt: Using 'this' function has different results in compile/preview vs dbt run - Stack Overflow
dbt-rpc (which powers the dbt Cloud IDE) doesn’t correctly resolve references to this. Its replacement, dbt-server, will be able to do this in the future but we don’t have a date to share on when that will be available in the IDE sorry!
Note: @joellabes (dbt Labs) originally posted this reply in Slack. It might not have transferred perfectly.