How to change column in database in Ruby on Rails?

Question

I am going into my ruby console with

ruby c

Then I type in

rename_column :table_name :old_column :new_column

where table_name old_column and new_column is replaced with the correct attributes

After I click enter, I receive the following error:

    SyntaxError ((irb):1: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting end-of-input)
rename_column :table_name ^:old_column :new_column

Possible duplicate of [How can I rename a database column in a Ruby on Rails migration?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1992019/how-can-i-rename-a-database-column-in-a-ruby-on-rails-migration) — ray, Dec 07 '18 at 13:57
As pointed out your format is not correct for a ruby command, but even with a correct format there is no `main:Object` method `rename_column`. You can't do that in the console. See Jay Dorsey's answer for how to do this change. — SteveTurczyn, Dec 07 '18 at 13:58

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 07 '18 at 02:45

You need to generate a migration.

rails generate migration ChangeColumnFoo

Open the file in db/migrate folder that it says was created.

Add a new line after the def change line and add your rename:

rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column

Save the file then run rake db:migrate from the console.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 22:52

0

You are missing some commas:

Original:

rename_column :table_name :old_column :new_column

Edited:

rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column

answered Dec 06 '18 at 22:52

user1158559

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '18 at 13:53

0

you forgot the commas :

rename_column :table_name, :old_column, :new_column

answered Dec 07 '18 at 13:53

Theo

3 Answers3