How can I modify DB structure in Laravel without truncating tables? - php

Question

I have defined a DB table structure below.
If I want to modify a table column:
From
$table->string('active',1);
To:
$table->string('active',1)->nullable(); // allow null values
Every time I run the migration script, my tables will be truncated.
Is there a way to define a table structure and have it be modified to correct structure WITHOUT dropping the table?
Here is my code for now:
<?php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
class VTUser extends Migration
{
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::create('Z_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->string('nickname')->unique();
$table->string('email')->unique();
$table->string('passhash');
$table->string('keygen');
$table->string('active',1)->nullable();
$table->string('banned',1);
$table->string('admin',1);
$table->string('step',1);
// $table->rememberToken();
// $table->timestamps();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* #return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::dropIfExists('Z_user');
}
}

Answer 1

There can be two ways of achieving this -
Either you can rollback the migration with php artisan migrate:rollback --step=1 and then change the up function with $table->string('active',1)->nullable();
Create a new migration to update the table by doing $table->string('active',1)->nullable(); in this new migration.