asked on

How do I add timestamps to a table in Laravel?

I migrated a table from another database into a Laravel application.

First of all, it looks like all Laravel tables include a "created_at" and an "updated_at" column that need to be added in order for any kind of update or insertion to occur without an error, yes?

I'm assuming that's the case.

So, here's what I attempted to do for a migration that added those timestamps:

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class AlterProfessionalTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        //
		Schema::table('professionals', function (Blueprint $table) {
            //
			$table->timestamps();
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        //
		$table->dropTimestamps();
    }
}

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I got this error:

Symfony\Component\Debug\Exception\FatalThrowableError : syntax error, unexpected 'public' (T_PUBLIC), expecting ')'

at C:\wamp64\www\new_nomas\database\migrations\2020_01_31_205053_alter_professional_table.php:27
23| * Reverse the migrations.
24| *
25| * @return void
26| */
> 27| public function down()
28| {
29| //
30| $table->dropTimestamps();
31| }

Where did I blow it?

Chris Stanyon

Hey Bruce,

Simple typo - you've not closed off your closure:

public function up()
{
    Schema::table('professionals', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->timestamps();
    }); <!- you're missing this bit :)

}

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Bruce Gust

ASKER

Chris, that did it!

But I've got one more question, if you don't mind.

Here's my corrected migration code:

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class AlterProfessionalTable extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function up()
    {
        //
		Schema::table('professionals', function (Blueprint $table) {
            //
			$table->timestamps();
		});
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function down()
    {
        //
		$table->dropTimestamps();
    }
}

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But when I run php migrate, I get this:

$ php artisan migrate
Migrating: 2020_01_02_171926_add_user_id_to_pages_table
Migrated:  2020_01_02_171926_add_user_id_to_pages_table (0.07 seconds)
Migrating: 2020_01_29_224553_create_practioners_table
Migrated:  2020_01_29_224553_create_practioners_table (0.05 seconds)
Migrating: 2020_01_29_231018_create_professional_table

   Illuminate\Database\QueryException  : SQLSTATE[42S01]: Base table or view already exists: 1050 Table 'professionals' alread
y exists (SQL: create table `professionals` (`id` bigint unsigned not null auto_increment primary key, `cert_year` int not nul
l, `cert_num` varchar(191) not null, `lname` varchar(191) not null, `fname` varchar(191) not null, `addr1` varchar(191) not nu
ll, `addr2` varchar(191) not null, `city` varchar(191) not null, `region_state` varchar(191) not null, `country` varchar(191)
not null, `postal` varchar(191) not null, `discipline` varchar(191) not null, `phone` varchar(191) not null, `email` varchar(1
91) not null, `license` int not null, `created_at` timestamp null, `updated_at` timestamp null) default character set utf8mb4
collate 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci')

  at C:\wamp64\www\new_nomas\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:665
    661|         // If an exception occurs when attempting to run a query, we'll format the error
    662|         // message to include the bindings with SQL, which will make this exception a
    663|         // lot more helpful to the developer instead of just the database's errors.
    664|         catch (Exception $e) {
  > 665|             throw new QueryException(
    666|                 $query, $this->prepareBindings($bindings), $e
    667|             );
    668|         }
    669|

  Exception trace:

  1   PDOException::("SQLSTATE[42S01]: Base table or view already exists: 1050 Table 'professionals' already exists")
      C:\wamp64\www\new_nomas\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:459

  2   PDOStatement::execute()
      C:\wamp64\www\new_nomas\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:459

  Please use the argument -v to see more details.

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...which makes no sense. Obviously, the table exists, I'm just trying to add a couple of columns to the "professionals" table.

What am I doing wrong?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Chris Stanyon

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Bruce Gust

ASKER

Chris!

Good morning!

Changed the closure problem with the "dropTimestamps."

Thank you!

Also, found this:

$ php artisan migrate --path=database/migrations/2020_01_31_205053_alter_professional_table.php

One migration at a time...

BOOM!

Thank you!