How to drop columns using Rails migration

Question

What\'s the syntax for dropping a database table column through a Rails migration?

Answer 1

There are two good ways to do this:

remove_column

You can simply use remove_column, like so:

remove_column :users, :first_name

This is fine if you only need to make a single change to your schema.

change_table block

You can also do this using a change_table block, like so:

change_table :users do |t|
  t.remove :first_name
end

I prefer this as I find it more legible, and you can make several changes at once.

Here's the full list of supported change_table methods:

http://apidock.com/rails/ActiveRecord/ConnectionAdapters/SchemaStatements/change_table

Answer 2

remove_column :table_name, :column_name

For instance:

remove_column :users, :hobby

would remove the hobby Column from the users table.

Answer 3

in rails 5 you can use this command in the terminal:

rails generate migration remove_COLUMNNAME_from_TABLENAME COLUMNNAME:DATATYPE

for example to remove the column access_level(string) from table users:

rails generate migration remove_access_level_from_users access_level:string

and then run:

rake db:migrate

Answer 4

In a rails4 app it is possible to use the change method also for removing columns. The third param is the data_type and in the optional forth you can give options. It is a bit hidden in the section 'Available transformations' on the documentation .

class RemoveFieldFromTableName < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    remove_column :table_name, :field_name, :data_type, {}
  end
end

Answer 5

Remove Columns For RAILS 5 App

rails g migration Remove<Anything>From<TableName> [columnName:type]

Command above generate a migration file inside db/migrate directory. Snippet blow is one of remove column from table example generated by Rails generator,

class RemoveAgeFromUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def up
    remove_column :users, :age
  end
  def down
    add_column :users, :age, :integer
  end
end

I also made a quick reference guide for Rails which can be found at here.

Answer 6

For removing column from table in just easy 3 steps as follows:

1. write this command

rails g migration remove_column_from_table_name

after running this command in terminal one file created by this name and time stamp (remove_column from_table_name).

Then go to this file.

2. inside file you have to write

   remove_column :table_name, :column_name

3. Finally go to the console and then do

   rake db:migrate