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Update incremental-models.md (#6283)
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mirnawong1 authored Oct 16, 2024
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Expand Up @@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Not specifying a `unique_key` will result in append-only behavior, which means d

The optional `unique_key` parameter specifies a field (or combination of fields) that defines the grain of your model. That is, the field(s) identify a single unique row. You can define `unique_key` in a configuration block at the top of your model, and it can be a single column name or a list of column names.

The `unique_key` should be supplied in your model definition as a string representing a single column or a list of single-quoted column names that can be used together, for example, `['col1', 'col2', …])`. Columns used in this way should not contain any nulls, or the incremental model run may fail. Either ensure that each column has no nulls (for example with `coalesce(COLUMN_NAME, 'VALUE_IF_NULL')`), or define a single-column [surrogate key](https://www.getdbt.com/blog/guide-to-surrogate-key) (for example with [`dbt_utils.generate_surrogate_key`](https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils#generate_surrogate_key-source)).
The `unique_key` should be supplied in your model definition as a string representing a single column or a list of single-quoted column names that can be used together, for example, `['col1', 'col2', …])`. Columns used in this way should not contain any nulls, or the incremental model may fail to match rows and generate duplicate rows. Either ensure that each column has no nulls (for example with `coalesce(COLUMN_NAME, 'VALUE_IF_NULL')`) or define a single-column [surrogate key](https://www.getdbt.com/blog/guide-to-surrogate-key) (for example with [`dbt_utils.generate_surrogate_key`](https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt-utils#generate_surrogate_key-source)).

:::tip
In cases where you need multiple columns in combination to uniquely identify each row, we recommend you pass these columns as a list (`unique_key = ['user_id', 'session_number']`), rather than a string expression (`unique_key = 'concat(user_id, session_number)'`).
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