Question

I created a model with an attribute “name” but I want to change it to “username”. Everything I’ve read about database migrations involves creating a class or some complicated stuff. All I want to do is the equivalent of “UPDATE TABLE” in SQL. How do you run a one-time database migration to change this? I’m guessing it’d involve rails console and then some command?

Answer 1

First:

rails g migration rename_name_column_to_username

Then in the generated rename_name_column_to_username.rb migration file:

class RenameNameColumnToUsername < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    rename_column :users, :name, :username
  end

  def self.down
    rename_column :users, :username, :name
  end
end

And then rake db:migrate