Add support for the "change"-function

[4ice]

It would be great if this feature was supported.

As I understand, the following would have to be done in order to change a field (This example changes a field called "name" from a varchar to text):

1. Add a column of the desired type (ALTER TABLE table_name ADD COLUMN field2 TEXT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 DEFAULT NULL COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; )
2. Fill values in this column with the column you want to change the data type (UPDATE table_name SET name2 = name;)
3. Remove the previous column (ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN name;)
4. Change the name of the new column (ALTER TABLE table_name CHANGE name2 name;)

Would it be possible to implement this? Or is there already another way to do this?

[carlsverre]

Does Laravel have a change function already that works with other database backends or are you just suggesting that this pattern should be made into a nice function?

[4ice]

@carlsverre Yes, the function exists and works with other databases. I am migrating from mysql driver to singlestore, and I have several migrations that use the change()-function that I am working on rewriting as we speak.

[carlsverre]

Gotcha. This is a great feature request. Thank you!

[sneycampos]

Hi, any news about this issue/feature request?

[JackEllis]

@carlsverre I like this suggestion. Can this all be done in a single SQL DB transaction?

[carlsverre]

Unfortunately alter tables in SingleStore don't operate within user defined transactions. So it's not possible to perform this entire column change process atomically.

[hafezdivandari]

Is this issue still relevant? It's easy to implement this using the OP's workaround: adding, inserting, dropping, renaming.

[hafezdivandari]

You may check PR #88