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Schema Builder

Introduction

The Laravel Schema class provides a database agnostic way of manipulating tables. It works well with all of the databases supported by Laravel, and has a unified API across all of these systems.

Creating & Dropping Tables

To create a new database table, the Schema::create method is used:

Schema::create('users', function($table)
{
	$table->increments('id');
});

The first argument passed to the create method is the name of the table, and the second is a Closure which will receive a Blueprint object which may be used to define the new table.

To rename an existing database table, the rename method may be used:

Schema::rename($from, $to);

To specify which connection the schema operation should take place on, use the Schema::connection method:

Schema::connection('foo')->create('users', function($table)
{
	$table->increments('id'):
});

To drop a table, you may use the Schema::drop method:

Schema::drop('users');

Schema::dropIfExists('users');

Adding Columns

To update an existing table, we will use the Schema::table method:

Schema::table('users', function($table)
{
	$table->string('email');
});

The table builder contains a variety of column types that you may use when building your tables:

Command Description
$table->increments('id'); Incrementing ID to the table (primary key).
$table->string('email'); VARCHAR equivalent column
$table->string('name', 100); VARCHAR equivalent with a length
$table->integer('votes'); INTEGER equivalent to the table
$table->bigInteger('votes'); BIGINT equivalent to the table
$table->smallInteger('votes'); SMALLINT equivalent to the table
$table->float('amount'); FLOAT equivalent to the table
$table->decimal('amount', 5, 2); DECIMAL equivalent with a precision and scale
$table->boolean('confirmed'); BOOLEAN equivalent to the table
$table->date('created_at'); DATE equivalent to the table
$table->dateTime('created_at'); DATETIME equivalent to the table
$table->time('sunrise'); TIME equivalent to the table
$table->timestamp('added_on'); TIMESTAMP equivalent to the table
$table->timestamps(); Adds created_at and updated_at columns
$table->softDeletes(); Adds deleted_at column for soft deletes
$table->text('description'); TEXT equivalent to the table
$table->binary('data'); BLOB equivalent to the table
$table->enum('choices', array('foo', 'bar')); ENUM equivalent to the table
->nullable() Designate that the column allows NULL values
->default($value) Declare a default value for a column
->unsigned() Set INTEGER to UNSIGNED

If you are using the MySQL database, you may use the after method to specify the order of columns:

Using After On MySQL

$table->string('name')->after('email');

Renaming Columns

To rename a column, you may use the renameColumn method on the Schema builder:

Renaming A Column

Schema::table('users', function($table)
{
	$table->renameColumn('from', 'to');
});

Note: Renaming enum column types is not supported.

Dropping Columns

Dropping A Column From A Database Table

Schema::table('users', function($table)
{
	$table->dropColumn('votes');
});

Dropping Multiple Columns From A Database Table

Schema::table('users', function($table)
{
	$table->dropColumn('votes', 'avatar', 'location');
});

Checking Existence

You may easily check for the existence of a table or column using the hasTable and hasColumn methods:

Checking For Existence Of Table

if (Schema::hasTable('users'))
{
	//
}

Checking For Existence Of Columns

if (Schema::hasColumn('users', 'email'))
{
	//
}

Adding Indexes

The schema builder supports several types of indexes. There are two ways to add them. First, you may fluently define them on a column definition, or you may add them separately:

Fluently Creating A Column And Index

$table->string('email')->unique();

Or, you may choose to add the indexes on separate lines. Below is a list of all available index types:

Command Description
$table->primary('id'); Adding a primary key
$table->primary(array('first', 'last')); Adding composite keys
$table->unique('email'); Adding a unique index
$table->index('state'); Adding a basic index

Foreign Keys

Laravel also provides support for adding foreign key constraints to your tables:

Adding A Foreign Key To A Table

$table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users');

In this example, we are stating that the user_id column references the id column on the users table.

You may also specify options for the "on delete" and "on update" actions of the constraint:

$table->foreign('user_id')
      ->references('id')->on('users')
      ->onDelete('cascade');

To drop a foreign key, you may use the dropForeign method. A similar naming convention is used for foreign keys as is used for other indexes:

$table->dropForeign('posts_user_id_foreign');

Dropping Indexes

To drop an index you must specify the index's name. Laravel assigns a reasonable name to the indexes by default. Simply concatenate the table name, the names of the column in the index, and the index type. Here are some examples:

Command Description
$table->dropPrimary('users_id_primary'); Dropping a primary key from the "users" table
$table->dropUnique('users_email_unique'); Dropping a unique index from the "users" table
$table->dropIndex('geo_state_index'); Dropping a basic index from the "geo" table

Storage Engines

To set the storage engine for a table, set the engine property on the schema builder:

Schema::create('users', function($table)
{
    $table->engine = 'InnoDB';

    $table->string('email');
});