How to change enum type column in laravel migration?

Question

I am using Laravel 5.1 and I have a table called packages with this structure:

id              int(11) weight          decimal(10,2)            weight_unit     enum('Kg.', 'Gm.') 

I would like to change the weight_unit enum to:

weight_unit enum('Grams','Kgs.','Pounds')

For this I create the following migration:

public function up() {     Schema::table('packages', function ($table) {         $table->enum('weight_unit', array('Grams','Kgs.','Pounds'))->nullable()->change();     }); } 

But when I run the migration I receive an error:

Unknown database type enum requested, Doctrine\DBAL\Platforms\MySqlPlatform    may not support it. 

How can I change this enum?

Answer 1

Use the DB::statement method:

DB::statement("ALTER TABLE packages MODIFY COLUMN weight_unit ENUM('Grams', 'Kgs', 'Pounds')"); 

Answer 2

This worked for me when adding a new enum value to the modified enum column.

Add the following to the up() method:

DB::statement("ALTER TABLE packages MODIFY weight_unit ENUM('Grams', 'Kgs', 'Pounds', 'new value') NOT NULL"); 

Then in the down() method you can revert the change that was made:

DB::statement("ALTER TABLE packages MODIFY weight_unit ENUM('Grams', 'Kgs', 'Pounds') NOT NULL"); 

Note: before the enum value is removed it needs to be changed to another enum value that will be retained.