Add a default value to a column through a migration

Question

Here's how you should do it:

change_column :users, :admin, :boolean, :default => false

But some databases, like PostgreSQL, will not update the field for rows previously created, so make sure you update the field manaully on the migration too.

change_column_default :employees, :foreign, false

For Rails 4+, use change_column_default

def change
  change_column_default :table, :column, value
end

Using def change means you should write migrations that are reversible. And change_column is not reversible. You can go up but you cannot go down, since change_column is irreversible.

Instead, though it may be a couple extra lines, you should use def up and def down

So if you have a column with no default value, then you should do this to add a default value.

def up
  change_column :users, :admin, :boolean, default: false
end

def down
  change_column :users, :admin, :boolean, default: nil
end

Or if you want to change the default value for an existing column.

def up
  change_column :users, :admin, :boolean, default: false
end

def down
  change_column :users, :admin, :boolean, default: true
end

**Rails 4.X +**

As of Rails 4 you can't generate a migration to add a column to a table with a default value, The following steps add a new column to an existing table with default value true or false.

1. Run the migration from command line to add the new column

$ rails generate migration add_columnname_to_tablename columnname:boolean

The above command will add a new column in your table.

2. Set the new column value to TRUE/FALSE by editing the new migration file created.

class AddColumnnameToTablename < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def change
    add_column :table_name, :column_name, :boolean, default: false
  end
end

**3. To make the changes into your application database table, run the following command in terminal**

$ rake db:migrate