proc_inst_I'd_ column being string in database

[kethur]

Hi,

I always wonder why this column is defined as varchar and not as number in the database?  Same thing with execution id.

Thanks
Raj

[trademak]

Valid point, with the default db id generator it's always a number, but we also allow the id generator to be overridden. And then it could contain text characters as well.

Best regards,

[kethur]

Thanks.  Is there any added benefit of allowing characters for this column.   I am sure it adds to database query performance a lot especially when looking up instance ids in a large process database.  Looking for set of variables for a process instance id is an example of that.

Any plans to change it in future?

Raj

[jbarrez]

> I am sure it adds to database query performance a lot

I'm, sure that in this day databases are fast enough not care about a few characters. After all, all those id's are indexed.
There are multiple places where we can tweak performance in Activiti before having to resort to these kind of things.