Rails Postgreql change int to bignum on column

Question

I have a field in a table that was originally set as integer. It is an ID from a an external data source. Now using multiple datasources some of the ID values are very large integers, larger than postgres 4bit default. What is the best way to change the table structure?

Answer 1

This migration using striaght SQL did the trick for me. Thanks to: https://gist.github.com/lxxdn/1e23067da51072a7e446

class ChangeForignIdsToBigInt < ActiveRecord::Migration

  def up
    execute <<-SQL
      ALTER TABLE events
      ALTER COLUMN eid TYPE bigint USING eid::bigint
    SQL
    execute <<-SQL
      ALTER TABLE venues
      ALTER COLUMN vid TYPE bigint USING vid::bigint
    SQL
  end

  def down
    raise ActiveRecord::IrreversibleMigration.new
  end

end