Modifying database table columns using migrations in laravel

Adding a new column to the existing table

We are going to add 'username' column to the users table.

To add this column to the existing users table we just need to create a new migration table and link it the the users table

php artisan make:migration add_username_to_users_table --table=users

We are going to edit this migration table up() function and add the username column to come after name and allow it to be nullable

public function up(): void    {
        Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->string('username')->nullable()->after('name');
        });
    }

Now we migrate our username column would be visible in our DB table.

php artisan migrate

Removing a column from the existing table

We are going to remove the 'username' column from the users table.

To do this we're going to follow steps as when adding but a different migration table name. So, first we make a migration table and link it to the users table

php artisan make:migration remove_username_from_users_table --table=users

To delete the username column would edit the up() function and a dropColumn to it 👇

public function up(): void    {
        Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->dropColumn('username');
        });
    }

Now we migrate and our username column would be removed from the DB

php artisan migrate

Modifying our column type in laravel migration table

First things first, to be able to edit our column type in laravel we need a package 'doctrine/dbal'. So let's install it

composer require doctrine/dbal

We would be modifying the name column from "string" to "text"

Now we create the migration table that we would be using the change the column type

php artisan make:migration change_name_from_string_to_text_in_users_table --table=users

Then we create a table column in the up() function that would modify the existing name column

public function up(): void    {
        Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->text("name")->change();
        });
    }

Don't forget to migrate

php artisan migrate

Our name column is using the text now instead of string and that's all