Is there documentation for the Rails column types?

Question

I\'m looking for more than the simple type listing that is found on this page:

:primary_key, :string, :text, :integer, :float, :decimal, :datetime, :t

Answer 1

From Rails master branch source code I found:

abstract mysql_adapter

#activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_mysql_adapter.rb

  NATIVE_DATABASE_TYPES = {
    primary_key: "bigint auto_increment PRIMARY KEY",
    string:      { name: "varchar", limit: 255 },
    text:        { name: "text", limit: 65535 },
    integer:     { name: "int", limit: 4 },
    float:       { name: "float" },
    decimal:     { name: "decimal" },
    datetime:    { name: "datetime" },
    timestamp:   { name: "timestamp" },
    time:        { name: "time" },
    date:        { name: "date" },
    binary:      { name: "blob", limit: 65535 },
    boolean:     { name: "tinyint", limit: 1 },
    json:        { name: "json" },
  }

  # Maps logical Rails types to MySQL-specific data types.
  def type_to_sql(type, limit = nil, precision = nil, scale = nil, unsigned = nil)
    sql = case type.to_s
    when 'integer'
      integer_to_sql(limit)
    when 'text'
      text_to_sql(limit)
    when 'blob'
      binary_to_sql(limit)
    when 'binary'
      if (0..0xfff) === limit
        "varbinary(#{limit})"
      else
        binary_to_sql(limit)
      end
    else
      super(type, limit, precision, scale)
    end

    sql << ' unsigned' if unsigned && type != :primary_key
    sql
  end    

# and integer ...

  def integer_to_sql(limit) # :nodoc:
    case limit
    when 1; 'tinyint'
    when 2; 'smallint'
    when 3; 'mediumint'
    when nil, 4; 'int'
    when 5..8; 'bigint'
    else raise(ActiveRecordError, "No integer type has byte size #{limit}")
    end
  end

 # and text ..

  def text_to_sql(limit) # :nodoc:
    case limit
    when 0..0xff;               'tinytext'
    when nil, 0x100..0xffff;    'text'
    when 0x10000..0xffffff;     'mediumtext'
    when 0x1000000..0xffffffff; 'longtext'
    else raise(ActiveRecordError, "No text type has byte length #{limit}")
    end
  end

# and binary ...

    def binary_to_sql(limit) # :nodoc:
      case limit
      when 0..0xff;               "tinyblob"
      when nil, 0x100..0xffff;    "blob"
      when 0x10000..0xffffff;     "mediumblob"
      when 0x1000000..0xffffffff; "longblob"
      else raise(ActiveRecordError, "No binary type has byte length #{limit}")
      end
    end

the super in type_to_sql method

#activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/schema_statements.rb
  def type_to_sql(type, limit = nil, precision = nil, scale = nil) #:nodoc:
    type = type.to_sym if type
    if native = native_database_types[type]
      column_type_sql = (native.is_a?(Hash) ? native[:name] : native).dup

      if type == :decimal # ignore limit, use precision and scale
        scale ||= native[:scale]

        if precision ||= native[:precision]
          if scale
            column_type_sql << "(#{precision},#{scale})"
          else
            column_type_sql << "(#{precision})"
          end
        elsif scale
          raise ArgumentError, "Error adding decimal column: precision cannot be empty if scale is specified"
        end

      elsif [:datetime, :time].include?(type) && precision ||= native[:precision]
        if (0..6) === precision
          column_type_sql << "(#{precision})"
        else
          raise(ActiveRecordError, "No #{native[:name]} type has precision of #{precision}. The allowed range of precision is from 0 to 6")
        end
      elsif (type != :primary_key) && (limit ||= native.is_a?(Hash) && native[:limit])
        column_type_sql << "(#{limit})"
      end

      column_type_sql
    else
      type.to_s
    end
  end