Errors on `--empty´ Flag run

[marvingeerken]

Describe the bug

Several statements use the {{ source() }} macro to gather the name of the table/pipe. When running our external tables/pipe on the CI, we use the --empty flag. Here the source name gets overridden by sub-select using where false limit 0. Hence all these statements raises compilation errors.

Example: create or replace table (select * from db.schema.name where false limit 0)

The dbt documentation recommends to use .render() for such cases: https://docs.getdbt.com/reference/commands/build#the-render-method

To have a proper, automated deployment we execute the stage_external_sources() macro as a pre_hook of the downstream staging model. Thats why we have just one command with the additional empty flag.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create snowpipe via yaml definition
2. Create a sql model on top
3. Add a pre_hook executing the snowpipe
4. Run the model adding the --empty flag

Expected results

Actual results

Screenshots and log output

System information

The contents of your packages.yml file:

Which database are you using dbt with?

• [ ] redshift
• [x] snowflake
• [ ] other (specify: ____________)

The output of dbt --version: dbt Cloud latest

The operating system you're using:

The output of python --version:

Additional context

[kev-datams]

Hello, any possible prioritization of this topic ? 🙏

[juoll-data]

We are facing this issue using bigquery.

[tlangton3]

Still facing this issue on BQ.

[juoll-data]

We use the following work around for big query metadata columns :

• add a macro

{% macro system_metadata(system_metadata_column, val="''") %}
  {% if flags.EMPTY %}
    {{ val }}
  {% else %}
    {{ system_metadata_column }}
  {% endif %}
{% endmacro %}

• we use it to surround metadata column : {{ system_metadata('_FILE_NAME') }} or {{ system_metadata('_PARTITIONTIME', 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()') }}

[tlangton3]

Thank you for the workaround @juoll-data !

[piotrdanielczyk-arrive]

We also encountered this issue. Any plans to resolve it?