fix: add explicit return(none) in get_elementary_relation when relation not found

[elazarlachkar]

Summary

The v0.24.0 refactoring in PR #1006 (deferral fallback) broke get_elementary_relation for environments where elementary tables don't exist and deferral is not active.

Before (v0.23.1): adapter.get_relation() result was always explicitly returned:

{% do return(adapter.get_relation(...)) %}  -- None when table missing

After (v0.24.0): when adapter.get_relation() returns None and deferral is off, the macro falls through without calling return(). In dbt's Jinja2, this returns the rendered template text (whitespace) instead of None. A non-empty whitespace string is truthy, so callers checking {% if relation %} proceed as if the table exists — producing from <whitespace> in SQL, which causes downstream syntax errors like:

Syntax error: Unexpected keyword UNION at [26:17]

Example from Current's environment (does no have a dbt_models table):

Fix: add {% do return(none) %} at the end of the macro to restore the v0.23.1 contract.

Related: CORE-930

Link to Devin session: https://app.devin.ai/sessions/1fddd97133934bbd9ab85b4137700ec8
Requested by: @elazarlachkar

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved consistency in relation handling to ensure predictable behavior when no matching relation is found. This addresses edge cases that could result in unexpected outcomes in certain scenarios.

[devin-ai-integration]

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[github-actions]

👋 @elazarlachkar
Thank you for raising your pull request.
Please make sure to add tests and document all user-facing changes.
You can do this by editing the docs files in the elementary repository.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This PR adds an explicit return(none) statement to the get_elementary_relation dbt macro to ensure deterministic None handling when no matching relation is found and no deferral-based fallback is constructed.

Changes

Deterministic Relation Lookup

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Explicit return for relation lookup fallback macros/utils/graph/get_elementary_relation.sql	An explicit return(none) is added to ensure the macro deterministically returns None when no relation matches and the deferral-based fallback does not trigger.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 1 (Trivial) | ⏱️ ~2 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• elementary-data/dbt-data-reliability#1006: Both PRs modify the same macro for relation lookup; PR #1006 adds deferral-aware fallback logic while this PR ensures explicit None return when no relation is found.

Suggested reviewers

• arbiv

Poem

🐰 When macros return with grace,
Not falling through empty space,
An explicit none, clean and clear,
Makes the intent shine bright here! ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main change: adding an explicit return(none) statement to the get_elementary_relation macro to fix a bug where the macro was falling through without returning None when a relation was not found.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.

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✨ Finishing Touches

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🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch devin/1780489496-fix-get-elementary-relation-missing-return

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