# Migration: updating a column

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 29, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389 "2010-07-29T15:05:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eric2323223)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389/1 "2010-07-29T15:05:18Z")

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Hi,

Is there a way to “update” a column?

Here’s what I mean:  
I have a column name “item” in table “products” of type “integer”  
Now I want to update the column to have the option “:null =\> false”

So far, the only way I have found is to remove it and re-add it, but  
obviously that is quite dumb.

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**Author:** ![eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eric2323223)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389/2 "2010-07-29T15:19:23Z")

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Have you tried change\_column in a migration?

> **[ActiveRecord::Migration](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Migration.html)**
>
> Active Record Migrations Migrations can manage the evolution of a schema used by several physical databases.

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**Author:** ![eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eric2323223)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389/3 "2010-07-29T16:43:42Z")

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Thanks.

I was under the impression that change\_column was only for renaming.

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**Author:** ![eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/7c8e57/32.png) [@eric2323223](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eric2323223)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/migration-updating-a-column/192389/4 "2010-07-29T21:56:54Z")

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On 29 July 2010 15:42, Eric Y. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Thanks.
> 
> I was under the impression that change\_column was only for renaming.

Please don’t top post on this list. Thanks.  
rename\_column is for renaming, change\_column is for changing the  
attributes of the col.

Column