What programming language is used for writing dbt models?

dbt models are primarily written in SQL because dbt is designed to help analytics engineers transform raw data into a more usable format within a data warehouse using SQL-based transformations. SQL serves as the backbone for dbt, allowing users to define transformations and create models that are executed in the data warehouse.

By leveraging SQL, dbt ensures that the models are not only accessible to those who already work with databases but also can be optimized directly within the environment where the data resides. This focus on SQL enables seamless integration with various data warehouses and makes it easier for teams to collaborate on data projects.

While other programming languages such as Python, Java, or R can be useful for data analysis or handling data in certain contexts, they are not the primary languages used in dbt for defining data transformation logic.