PG::InvalidTextRepresentation: ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: “M”

Question

So I have a gender column on my user model and it\'s currently a string, I\'d like to change it to a integer and make Male \'1\', and Female \'0\' as it\'s presently Male \"

Answer 1

You need to first convert the values M to 1 and F to 0 and then change the column type.

class ChangeGenderToIntegerOnUser < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    User.where(gender: 'M').update_all(gender: 1)
    User.where(gender: 'F').update_all(gender: 0)
    change_column :users, :gender, 'integer USING CAST(gender AS integer)'
  end
end