Class: ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::TableDefinition

An array of ColumnDefinition objects, representing the column changes that have been defined.

Alias for #references.

Instantiates a new column for the table. The type parameter is normally one of the migrations native types, which is one of the following: :primary_key, :string, :text, :integer, :float, :decimal, :datetime, :time, :date, :binary, :boolean.

You may use a type not in this list as long as it is supported by your database (for example, “polygon” in MySQL), but this will not be database agnostic and should usually be avoided.

Available options are (none of these exists by default):

• :limit - Requests a maximum column length. This is number of characters for :string and :text columns and number of bytes for :binary and :integer columns.

• :default - The column's default value. Use nil for NULL.

• :null - Allows or disallows NULL values in the column. This option could have been named :null_allowed.

• :precision - Specifies the precision for a :decimal column.

• :scale - Specifies the scale for a :decimal column.

• :index - Create an index for the column. Can be either true or an options hash.

Note: The precision is the total number of significant digits and the scale is the number of digits that can be stored following the decimal point. For example, the number 123.45 has a precision of 5 and a scale of 2. A decimal with a precision of 5 and a scale of 2 can range from -999.99 to 999.99.

Please be aware of different RDBMS implementations behavior with :decimal columns:

• The SQL standard says the default scale should be 0, :scale <= :precision, and makes no comments about the requirements of :precision.

• MySQL: :precision [1..63], :scale [0..30]. Default is (10,0).

• PostgreSQL: :precision [1..infinity], :scale [0..infinity]. No default.

• SQLite2: Any :precision and :scale may be used. Internal storage as strings. No default.

• SQLite3: No restrictions on :precision and :scale, but the maximum supported :precision is 16. No default.

• Oracle: :precision [1..38], :scale [-84..127]. Default is (38,0).

• DB2: :precision [1..63], :scale [0..62]. Default unknown.

• SqlServer?: :precision [1..38], :scale [0..38]. Default (38,0).

This method returns self.

Examples

# Assuming td is an instance of TableDefinition
td.column(:granted, :boolean)
# granted BOOLEAN

td.column(:picture, :binary, limit: 2.megabytes)
# => picture BLOB(2097152)

td.column(:sales_stage, :string, limit: 20, default: 'new', null: false)
# => sales_stage VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'new' NOT NULL

td.column(:bill_gates_money, :decimal, precision: 15, scale: 2)
# => bill_gates_money DECIMAL(15,2)

td.column(:sensor_reading, :decimal, precision: 30, scale: 20)
# => sensor_reading DECIMAL(30,20)

# While <tt>:scale</tt> defaults to zero on most databases, it
# probably wouldn't hurt to include it.
td.column(:huge_integer, :decimal, precision: 30)
# => huge_integer DECIMAL(30)

# Defines a column with a database-specific type.
td.column(:foo, 'polygon')
# => foo polygon

Short-hand examples

Instead of calling column directly, you can also work with the short-hand definitions for the default types. They use the type as the method name instead of as a parameter and allow for multiple columns to be defined in a single statement.

What can be written like this with the regular calls to column:

create_table :products do |t|
  t.column :shop_id,     :integer
  t.column :creator_id,  :integer
  t.column :item_number, :string
  t.column :name,        :string, default: "Untitled"
  t.column :value,       :string, default: "Untitled"
  t.column :created_at,  :datetime
  t.column :updated_at,  :datetime
end
add_index :products, :item_number

can also be written as follows using the short-hand:

create_table :products do |t|
  t.integer :shop_id, :creator_id
  t.string  :item_number, index: true
  t.string  :name, :value, default: "Untitled"
  t.timestamps null: false
end

There's a short-hand method for each of the type values declared at the top. And then there's #timestamps that'll add created_at and updated_at as datetimes.

#references will add an appropriately-named _id column, plus a corresponding _type column if the :polymorphic option is supplied. If :polymorphic is a hash of options, these will be used when creating the _type column. The :index option will also create an index, similar to calling add_index. So what can be written like this:

create_table :taggings do |t|
  t.integer :tag_id, :tagger_id, :taggable_id
  t.string  :tagger_type
  t.string  :taggable_type, default: 'Photo'
end
add_index :taggings, :tag_id, name: 'index_taggings_on_tag_id'
add_index :taggings, [:tagger_id, :tagger_type]

Can also be written as follows using references:

create_table :taggings do |t|
  t.references :tag, index: { name: 'index_taggings_on_tag_id' }
  t.references :tagger, polymorphic: true, index: true
  t.references :taggable, polymorphic: { default: 'Photo' }
end

Adds index options to the indexes hash, keyed by column name This is primarily used to track indexes that need to be created after the table

index(:account_id, name: 'index_projects_on_account_id')

Appends a primary key definition to the table definition. Can be called multiple times, but this is probably not a good idea.

Adds a reference.

t.references(:user)
t.belongs_to(:supplier, foreign_key: true)

See SchemaStatements#add_reference for details of the options you can use.

Appends :datetime columns :created_at and :updated_at to the table. See SchemaStatements#add_timestamps

t.timestamps null: false