Show data¶

Preview the rows of a model without leaving the editor. dbt UI runs dbt show for you and displays the first rows as a table.

Editor in Preview data view: the first 10 rows of the customers model in a table

Before you start¶

Run the model first, in the same target. The preview reads the table or view that dbt built for the model in your warehouse, in the target selected in the lineage panel. It doesn't execute the SQL in the editor, so unsaved edits, and saved changes you haven't run yet, aren't reflected. Ephemeral models have no table to read.
The project needs a manifest that knows the model. Compiling or running the project creates it.
dbt-core 1.5 or later is required, because older versions don't have dbt show.
Set your env vars if profiles.yml uses env_var(): the preview connects to the warehouse with them.

Preview a model¶

Open a SQL model, a .sql file in a models folder.
Click Preview data (dbt show) in the editor header.
dbt UI asks "Load data from database?". Click Load Data.

A progress bar shows while the query runs. Then the table appears, with a # column numbering the rows and one column per column of the model. Empty (null) values show as blank cells.

If you click Cancel instead, the view shows "Data hasn't been loaded from database." with a Load Preview Data button.

How the query runs¶

dbt UI runs:

dbt show --inline "select * from {{ ref('<model>') }}" --limit 11 --output json --target <target>

in your workspace, with your env vars. <target> is the target selected in the lineage panel ("Select dbt target"), and ref() resolves the model's database, schema and alias for that target, so you see the rows of the relation the model builds there. It fetches 11 rows and shows the first 10. If there were more, the table ends with "Showing first 10 rows. The table contains more records." The number of rows isn't configurable.

The query has a timeout of 2 minutes. The rows aren't written to the server's log.

Refresh or reuse a preview¶

dbt UI remembers the last preview of each model, separately for each target, while the page is open. When you come back to Preview data for a model you've already previewed, it asks "Refresh data from database?":

Refresh runs the query again.
Use Cached shows the rows you loaded before.

Switching the target doesn't show another target's rows: a model you previewed only in another target has to be loaded again.

Reloading the page clears all cached previews.

Common errors¶

Errors appear under "Failed to load preview:" with the message from dbt UI or dbt.

Message	What to do
`manifest.json not found. Please compile the project first.`	Compile or run the project from the lineage panel.
`Model '<name>' not found in manifest. Please compile the project.`	The model is new or renamed since the last compile. Compile again.
An error from the database saying the relation doesn't exist	The model hasn't been built in the selected target yet. Run it there first, or pick the target you ran it in.
A connection or authentication error from dbt	Check `profiles.yml` and the values in Env vars.
`Query timed out after 2 minutes`	The warehouse took too long to answer, for example because the model is a slow view.
`dbt show is not supported for dbt-core < 1.5`	Upgrade dbt-core (raise `require-dbt-version` and recreate the virtual environment).

Previewing CSV files¶

CSV files, such as seeds, open in Table view without any query: dbt UI shows the file's own contents as a table. Switch to Text view to edit the file.