Laravel Migrations

Last modified on: September 4, 2025

<h1 data-start="116" data-end="162">🚀 Laravel Migrations &ndash; The Complete Guide</h1>
<p data-start="164" data-end="424">Migrations in Laravel are like <strong data-start="195" data-end="232">version control for your database</strong>. They allow you to define, modify, and share your database schema in a structured way. Instead of manually creating tables, you define them in migration files, and Laravel handles the rest.</p>
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<h2 data-start="431" data-end="462">🔹 1. What are Migrations?</h2>
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<p data-start="466" data-end="530">Migrations are <strong data-start="481" data-end="494">PHP files</strong> stored in <code data-start="505" data-end="527">database/migrations/</code>.</p>
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<p data-start="533" data-end="618">They contain instructions for <strong data-start="563" data-end="599">creating, modifying, or deleting</strong> database tables.</p>
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<p data-start="621" data-end="675">Work hand-in-hand with <strong data-start="644" data-end="672">Laravel&rsquo;s Schema Builder</strong>.</p>
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<p data-start="678" data-end="745">Help multiple developers sync the same database structure easily.</p>
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<p data-start="747" data-end="813">Think of migrations as a way to <strong data-start="779" data-end="810">&ldquo;code your database schema&rdquo;</strong>.</p>
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<h2 data-start="820" data-end="851">🔹 2. Creating a Migration</h2>
<p data-start="853" data-end="901">You can create a migration file using Artisan:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan make:migration create_posts_table</code></pre>
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<p data-start="962" data-end="1017">This generates a file in <code data-start="987" data-end="1009">database/migrations/</code> like:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>return new class extends Migration
{
    public function up(): void
    {
        Schema::create('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table-&gt;id();
            $table-&gt;string('title');
            $table-&gt;text('content');
            $table-&gt;timestamps();
        });
    }

public function down(): void
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('posts');
    }
};</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1409" data-end="1487"><code data-start="1409" data-end="1415">up()</code> &rarr; Defines what happens when migration is run (<code data-start="1462" data-end="1483">php artisan migrate</code>).</p>
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<p data-start="1490" data-end="1587"><code data-start="1490" data-end="1498">down()</code> &rarr; Defines what happens when migration is rolled back (<code data-start="1553" data-end="1583">php artisan migrate:rollback</code>).</p>
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<h2 data-start="1594" data-end="1623">🔹 3. Running Migrations</h2>
<p data-start="1625" data-end="1654">Run all pending migrations:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan migrate</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1689" data-end="1715">Rollback the last batch:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan migrate:rollback</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1759" data-end="1785">Rollback all migrations:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan migrate:reset</code></pre>
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<p data-start="1826" data-end="1880">Fresh start (drops all tables &amp; re-runs migrations):</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan migrate:fresh</code></pre>
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<h2 data-start="1926" data-end="1956">🔹 4. Common Column Types</h2>
<p data-start="1958" data-end="2016">Laravel provides many column types when defining schema:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>$table-&gt;id();                        // Auto-incrementing primary key
$table-&gt;string('name');              // VARCHAR
$table-&gt;text('description');         // TEXT
$table-&gt;integer('age');              // INT
$table-&gt;boolean('is_active');        // TINYINT(1)
$table-&gt;decimal('price', 8, 2);      // DECIMAL(8,2)
$table-&gt;timestamp('published_at');   // TIMESTAMP</code></pre>
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<h2 data-start="2396" data-end="2423">🔹 5. Modifying Tables</h2>
<p data-start="2425" data-end="2468">To add a new column to an existing table:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>php artisan make:migration add_status_to_posts_table --table=posts</code></pre>
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<p data-start="2550" data-end="2567">Generated file:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>public function up(): void
{
    Schema::table('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table-&gt;boolean('status')-&gt;default(1);
    });
}

public function down(): void
{
    Schema::table('posts', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table-&gt;dropColumn('status');
    });
}</code></pre>
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<h2 data-start="2866" data-end="2907">🔹 6. Foreign Keys and Relationships</h2>
<p data-start="2909" data-end="2936">Example with foreign key:</p>
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<pre class="language-php"><code>$table-&gt;unsignedBigInteger('user_id');
$table-&gt;foreign('user_id')-&gt;references('id')-&gt;on('users')-&gt;onDelete('cascade');</code></pre>
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<p data-start="3069" data-end="3137">This ensures <strong data-start="3082" data-end="3106">relational integrity</strong> between <code data-start="3115" data-end="3122">posts</code> and <code data-start="3127" data-end="3134">users</code>.</p>
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<h2 data-start="3144" data-end="3179">🔹 7. Migration Best Practices</h2>
<p data-start="3181" data-end="3408">✅ Always use plural table names (<code data-start="3214" data-end="3221">posts</code>, <code data-start="3223" data-end="3230">users</code>).<br data-start="3232" data-end="3235" />✅ Never edit old migrations in production; create new ones.<br data-start="3294" data-end="3297" />✅ Use <code data-start="3303" data-end="3337">php artisan migrate:fresh --seed</code> during development.<br data-start="3357" data-end="3360" />✅ Keep migrations under version control (Git).</p>
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<h2 data-start="3415" data-end="3439">📌 Example Workflow</h2>
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<p data-start="3444" data-end="3513">Create migration &rarr; <code data-start="3463" data-end="3510">php artisan make:migration create_posts_table</code>.</p>
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<p data-start="3517" data-end="3550">Define schema in <code data-start="3534" data-end="3540">up()</code> method.</p>
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<p data-start="3554" data-end="3594">Run migration &rarr; <code data-start="3570" data-end="3591">php artisan migrate</code>.</p>
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<p data-start="3598" data-end="3652">Rollback if needed &rarr; <code data-start="3619" data-end="3649">php artisan migrate:rollback</code>.</p>
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<p data-start="3656" data-end="3718">Push migration to Git &rarr; Teammates run <code data-start="3694" data-end="3715">php artisan migrate</code>.</p>
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