Migrations

Laravel

⏱ 20 min read📖 IntermediateNot completed

Migrations are version control for your database. They allow you to define and modify your database schema using PHP instead of raw SQL.

Creating a Migration

Terminal

# Create migration
php artisan make:migration create_posts_table

# Create migration + model at once
php artisan make:model Post -m

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate

# Rollback last batch
php artisan migrate:rollback

# Rollback everything
php artisan migrate:reset

# Rollback + re-run (fresh start)
php artisan migrate:fresh

Writing a Migration

database/migrations/create_posts_table.php

<?php
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

return new class extends Migration {

    public function up(): void
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();                           // Auto-increment primary key
            $table->foreignId('user_id')
                  ->constrained()
                  ->onDelete('cascade');            // Foreign key
            $table->string('title');                // VARCHAR(255)
            $table->string('slug')->unique();       // Unique slug
            $table->text('body');                   // Long text
            $table->string('image')->nullable();    // Optional
            $table->boolean('published')->default(false);
            $table->timestamp('published_at')->nullable();
            $table->timestamps();                   // created_at + updated_at
            $table->softDeletes();                  // deleted_at
        });
    }

    public function down(): void
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
};
?>

Common Column Types

Method	SQL Type
`$table->id()`	BIGINT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT
`$table->string('name')`	VARCHAR(255)
`$table->text('body')`	TEXT
`$table->integer('count')`	INT
`$table->boolean('active')`	TINYINT(1)
`$table->decimal('price', 8, 2)`	DECIMAL(8,2)
`$table->timestamp('verified_at')`	TIMESTAMP
`$table->json('settings')`	JSON
`$table->enum('status', ['active','inactive'])`	ENUM

Modifying Columns

Terminal + PHP

# Create a modification migration
php artisan make:migration add_views_to_posts_table

# In the migration:
public function up(): void
{
    Schema::table('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->integer('views')->default(0)->after('body');
        $table->string('meta_description')->nullable()->after('title');
    });
}

public function down(): void
{
    Schema::table('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->dropColumn(['views', 'meta_description']);
    });
}

💡

Never edit existing migrations in production! Always create a new migration to modify tables. Editing old migrations breaks the migration history for the rest of your team.

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