How to drop columns using Rails migration

Question

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

Answer 1

Simply, You can remove column

remove_column :table_name, :column_name

For Example,

remove_column :posts, :comment

Answer 2

Through
remove_column :table_name, :column_name
in a migration file

You can remove a column directly in a rails console by typing:
ActiveRecord::Base.remove_column :table_name, :column_name

Answer 3

Do like this;

rails g migration RemoveColumnNameFromTables column_name:type

I.e. rails g migration RemoveTitleFromPosts title:string

Anyway, Would be better to consider about downtime as well since the ActiveRecord caches database columns at runtime so if you drop a column, it might cause exceptions until your app reboots.

Ref: Strong migration

Answer 4

For older versions of Rails

ruby script/generate migration RemoveFieldNameFromTableName field_name:datatype

For Rails 3 and up

rails generate migration RemoveFieldNameFromTableName field_name:datatype

Answer 5

To remove the column from table you have to run following migration:

rails g migration remove_column_name_from_table_name column_name:data_type

Then run command:

rake db:migrate

Answer 6

Generate a migration to remove a column such that if it is migrated (rake db:migrate), it should drop the column. And it should add column back if this migration is rollbacked (rake db:rollback).

The syntax:

remove_column :table_name, :column_name, :type

Removes column, also adds column back if migration is rollbacked.

Example:

remove_column :users, :last_name, :string

Note: If you skip the data_type, the migration will remove the column successfully but if you rollback the migration it will throw an error.