dbt-labs/dbt-core · error

column must have a name attribute

Error message

column must have a name attribute

What it means

In the BigQuery partition filter (`reject_partition_field_column`) exposed to Jinja, each model `columns` entry is expected to expose a `name` attribute. `c.get_attr("name").expect(...)` panics when a column value lacks that attribute. The filter is used to exclude the partition field from column lists in rendered SQL, so any column-shaped value without `name` breaks the render with a Rust panic surfaced through the template engine.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-schemas/src/schemas/manifest/bigquery_partition.rs:186

            "timestamp"
        };
        Ok(MinijinjaValue::from(data_type))
    }

    pub fn reject_partition_field_column(
        &self,
        args: &[MinijinjaValue],
    ) -> Result<MinijinjaValue, MinijinjaError> {
        let mut parser = ArgParser::new(args, None);
        parser.check_num_args(current_function_name!(), 0, 1)?;

        let columns = parser.get::<MinijinjaValue>("columns")?;
        if let Ok(iter) = columns.try_iter() {
            let columns = iter
                .filter(|c| {
                    let name = c
                        .get_attr("name")
                        .expect("column must have a name attribute");
                    !name
                        .as_str()
                        .expect("name attribute must be a string")
                        .eq_ignore_ascii_case(self.field.as_str())
                })
                .collect::<Vec<_>>();
            Ok(MinijinjaValue::from(columns))
        } else {
            Err(MinijinjaError::new(
                MinijinjaErrorKind::InvalidArgument,
                "columns must be a list of Column",
            ))
        }
    }

    /// Return true if the data type should be truncated instead of cast to the data type
    pub fn data_type_should_be_truncated(&self) -> bool {
        !(self.data_type == "int64"

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

1. Ensure every entry in the model's `columns` config is a mapping with a `name` key in schema/YAML
2. Check that the caller feeding `columns` into this filter passes parsed column structs (which always have `name`), not raw template values
3. If you control the template, pre-filter columns for `name` presence before invoking the partition filter

Example fix

// before
let name = c.get_attr("name").expect("column must have a name attribute");
// after
let name = match c.get_attr("name") {
    Ok(n) => n,
    Err(_) => return true, // keep columns without a name
};

// validate columns in the model config before rendering partition SQL
for col in &model.columns {
    if col.get("name").map_or(true, |v| !v.is_string()) {
        return Err("every column must have a string 'name' attribute".into());
    }
}

fn has_string_name(col: &MinijinjaValue) -> bool {
    col.get_attr("name").map(|n| n.as_str().is_some()).unwrap_or(false)
}

let filtered = std::panic::catch_unwind(|| partition_cfg.reject_partition_field_column(columns));

When it happens

Trigger: Rendering a BigQuery partition-related template (e.g. `partition_by` expressions) where the `columns` iterable contains values without a `name` attribute — e.g. columns defined as plain strings, dicts using a different key, or None entries in the model's `columns` config.

Common situations: A model config defines `columns` with non-standard shapes (lists of strings instead of `{name: ..., ...}` dicts); a custom/older adapter materialization passes malformed column values into the partition filter; hand-written YAML where column entries omit the `name` key.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• name attribute must be a string
• time_partitioning_field must be a string
• unknown table type: {type_string}
• when data_type is date, inner must be a TimeConfig
• adapter.parse_partition_by failed on {raw_partition_by:?}: {

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f09c204647567778. Report an issue: GitHub.