Alter column length in Schema builder?

Question

I have two fields i need to increment the character limit on. I're read through the documentation and to my surprise i found no option for it. Is it possible to do? If not, how should i go about solving this?

I could drop the column and re-create it with the correct properties, but i don't want to loose any data in the database.

Answer 1

For Laravel 4

DB::update('ALTER TABLE `my_table` MODIFY `my_column` VARCHAR(<new length>)');

Answer 2

Use Raw Queries:

/**
 * Make changes to the database.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function up()
{
  DB::query('ALTER TABLE mytable MODIFY mycolumn VARCHAR(new-length)');
}

/**
 * Revert the changes to the database.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function down()
{
  DB::query('ALTER TABL mytable MODIFY mycolumn VARCHAR(old-length)');
}

Replace mytable, mycolumn, new-length and old-length.

For Laravel 5+ replace DB::query with DB::statement.