In a Rails Migration (MySQL), can you specify what position a new column should be?

mysql ruby-on-rails migration
yalestar picture yalestar · Dec 16, 2008 · Viewed 28.1k times · Source

If I'm adding a column via MySQL, I can specify where in the table that column will be using the AFTER modifier. But if I do the add_column via a Rails migration, the column will be created at the end of the table.

Is there any functionality for rails migrations to specify the position of an added column?

Answer

Gabe Martin-Dempesy picture Gabe Martin-Dempesy · Jul 15, 2010

This is now possible in Rails 2.3.6+ by passing the :after parameter

https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994/tickets/3286-patch-add-support-for-mysql-column-positioning-to-migrations

To everyone that doesn't see the advantage in having this feature: do you never look at your database outside of the ORM? If I'm viewing in any sort of UI, I like having things like foreign keys, status columns, flags, etc, all grouped together. This doesn't impact the application, but definitely speeds up my ability to review data.

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