Add sql table column before or after specific other column - by migrations in Laravel 4.1
Stefan Izdrail
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Adding SQL Table Columns before or after Specific Other Columns - Using Migrations in Laravel 4.1
Introduction:
When working on your application, you may find yourself needing to add a new column to an existing table. In this blog post, we'll discuss how to accomplish this task using migrations in Laravel 4.1. We'll cover two scenarios: adding the new column before or after another specific column.
Scenario 1: Adding Column Before Specific Other Column
Given your current table schema (Users) and desired changes (add 'phone_nr' between 'id' and 'deleted_at'):
|id|name|address|post_code|deleted_at|created_at|phone_nr|
php artisan make:migration add_phone_nr_to_users
Step 2: Open the migration file and modify it as needed.
The generated migration file should look something like this:
class AddPhoneNrToUsers extends Migration {
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up() {
// Your code to add a new column here
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down() {
// Removing the column if needed, here it's not required because you just added it.
}
}
public function up() {
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('phone_nr')->after('post_code'); // Put your column here
$table->foreignId('deleted_at')->nullable()->after('phone_nr');
});
}
|id|name|address|post_code|deleted_at|created_at|phone_nr|
public function up() {
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('phone_nr')->after('address');
$table->foreignId('deleted_at')->nullable()->after('phone_nr');
});
}