abstracting datetime boilerplate

[gregology]

resolves #

Problem

It takes a lot of Jinja boilerplate to generate datetime objects.

{% set foo = modules.datetime.datetime(1997, 9, 29, 6, 14, tzinfo=modules.pytz.timezone('UTC')) %}

Solution

The PR introduces date() and datetime() macros to reduce boilerplate and increase code readability.

{% set foo = datetime(1997, 9, 29, 6, 14) %}

The datetime() macro defaults to UTC as is common in data warehouse applications.

Checklist

• I have read the contributing guide and understand what's expected of me
• I have run this code in development and it appears to resolve the stated issue
• This PR includes tests, or tests are not required/relevant for this PR
• This PR has no interface changes (e.g. macros, cli, logs, json artifacts, config files, adapter interface, etc) or this PR has already received feedback and approval from Product or DX
• This PR includes type annotations for new and modified functions

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[dbeatty10]

@gregology that is a nice reduction in number of characters (~30 characters vs. ~84)! 🤩

This looks like a great candidate for inclusion within a dbt package. dbt_date is a popular one that comes to mind. It is automatically included within the dbt_expectations package as well.

Another option is to publish your own dbt package and host it on the dbt Package Hub.

We're going to hold off on adding these convenience macros to dbt-core in favor of distribution via the package ecosystem instead. So I'm going to close this as "not planned".

But please let us know in this thread if you end up adding this to a package!