# \[FEATURE\] Add ability to change custom alarm property data type

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [May 9, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134 "2024-05-09T04:11:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134/1 "2024-05-09T04:11:49Z")

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Currently custom alarm properties are fixed as unicode strings. It'd be useful to be able to select these like you can with tag custom properties. Not sure how this would affect writing them into the sql table...

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2024, 11:22am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134/2 "2024-05-09T11:22:32Z")

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Yeah, it would affect storage. I don't know of any DB that can automatically store arbitrary objects in a character column.

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**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134/3 "2024-05-09T21:57:07Z")

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Actually, I assumed there was only a string field column to store the values but not the case, it's similar to the history tables with a data type for each value type:

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/6/c/6cc712f07aa34f24ac046ab6d786693035216286.png)

Now it makes even less sense why you can't select a data type...

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**Author:** ![nminchin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/nminchin/32/6911_2.png) [@nminchin](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/nminchin)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 12:35am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134/4 "2024-05-10T00:35:15Z")

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![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/8/6/866ac4603090544985aab4ad76a64289a3281ef3.png)

@JordanCClark Hey, I was just expressing my creative spirit! 😄

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**Author:** ![JordanCClark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jordancclark/32/83362_2.png) [@JordanCClark](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/JordanCClark)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2024, 12:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/feature-add-ability-to-change-custom-alarm-property-data-type/90134/5 "2024-05-10T00:41:15Z")

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My OCD kicked in for a moment...

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/1/1/11023335dd0a22ea5afc8095d19d4f3df12197a9.jpeg)