Table types

Auto-incrementing ID column tables

Apart from the core Table class, Exposed provides the base IdTable class and its subclasses through the DAO API.

The IdTable class extends Table and is designed to simplify the definition of tables that use a standard id column as the primary key. These tables can be declared without explicitly including the id column, as IDs of the appropriate type are automatically generated when creating new table rows.

IdTable and its subclasses are located in the org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id package of the exposed-core module.

The following example represents a table with custom columns sequel_id, name, and director:

import org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id.IntIdTable

const val MAX_VARCHAR_LENGTH = 50

object StarWarsFilmsTable : IntIdTable() {
    val sequelId = integer("sequel_id").uniqueIndex()
    val name = varchar("name", MAX_VARCHAR_LENGTH)
    val director = varchar("director", MAX_VARCHAR_LENGTH)
}

The IntIdTable class automatically generates an auto-incrementing integer id column, which serves as the primary key for the table. When the table is created, it corresponds to the following SQL query:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS STARWARSFILMS
(ID INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
SEQUEL_ID INT NOT NULL,
"name" VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
DIRECTOR VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL);

Composite ID table

To define multiple columns as part of the primary key and ID, use CompositeIdTable and mark each composite column using .entityId() .Each component column will be available for CRUD operations either individually (as for any standard column) or all together as part of the id column:

package org.example.tables

import org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id.CompositeIdTable

enum class Genre { HORROR, DRAMA, THRILLER, SCI_FI }

const val NAME_LENGTH = 50

object DirectorsTable : CompositeIdTable("directors") {
    val name = varchar("name", NAME_LENGTH).entityId()
    val guildId = uuid("guild_id").autoGenerate().entityId()
    val genre = enumeration<Genre>("genre")

    override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(name, guildId)
}

If any of the key component columns have already been marked by .entityId() in another table, they can still be identified using addIdColumn(). This might be useful for key columns that reference another IdTable:

package org.example.tables

import org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id.CompositeIdTable

const val DIRECTOR_NAME_LENGTH = 50

object DirectorsWithGuildRefTable : CompositeIdTable() {
    val name = varchar("name", DIRECTOR_NAME_LENGTH).entityId()
    val guildId = reference("guild_id", GuildsTable)
    val genre = enumeration<Genre>("genre")

    init {
        addIdColumn(guildId)
    }

    override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(name, guildId)
}

Custom column type table

To define a custom column type as the primary key and ID, use a typed IdTable directly and override the id column, as shown in the following example:

package org.example.tables

import org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id.EntityID
import org.jetbrains.exposed.dao.id.IdTable
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Column

const val MAX_ID_LENGTH = 32
const val MAX_DIRECTOR_NAME_LENGTH = 32

object DirectorsCustomTable : IdTable<String>() {
    override val id: Column<EntityID<String>> = varchar("id", MAX_ID_LENGTH).entityId()
    val name = varchar("name", MAX_DIRECTOR_NAME_LENGTH)

    override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(id)
}

In the definition of DirectorsCustomTable, the id field is of type Column<EntityID<String>>, which will hold String values with a length of up to 32 characters. Using the override keyword indicates that this id column is overriding the default id column provided by IdTable.

Once all columns are defined, the id column is explicitly set as the primary key for the table, using the override keyword once again.

Table types﻿

Auto-incrementing ID column tables﻿

Composite ID table﻿

Custom column type table﻿

See also

Auto-incrementing ID column tables

Composite ID table

Custom column type table