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Orici
Asked: 2020-02-03 02:18:47 +0800 CST 2020-02-03 02:18:47 +0800 CST

Migrations in Laravel 5: difference between timestamps and nullableTimestamps

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In the documentation of migrations in Laravel 5.7 it indicates:

$table->timestamps();
// Adds nullable created_at and  updated_at TIMESTAMP equivalent columns.

$table->nullableTimestamps();
// Alias of timestamps() method.

So I suppose that there is no difference between using one and the other and the second one will have been left over from old versions for compatibility or some other reason.

laravel

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Reviewing the Laravel code, we see that there is no difference, it nullableTimestamps()calls timestamps()with the same input parameters, however I use timestamps(), it is shorter and it is one less code instruction (although we know that this is negligible in terms of time).

    /**
 * Add nullable creation and update timestamps to the table.
 *
 * @param  int  $precision
 * @return void
 */
public function timestamps($precision = 0)
{
    $this->timestamp('created_at', $precision)->nullable();

    $this->timestamp('updated_at', $precision)->nullable();
}

/**
 * Add nullable creation and update timestamps to the table.
 *
 * Alias for self::timestamps().
 *
 * @param  int  $precision
 * @return void
 */
public function nullableTimestamps($precision = 0)
{
    $this->timestamps($precision);
}

    For more information on the code, check out: https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/5.7/src/Illuminate/Database/Schema/Blueprint.php#L953

    Answering if there was any difference in previous versions, the answer is yes, in Laravel 5.1 nullableTimestamps()it created fields that allowed null values, while timestamps(), no:

    /**
 * Add nullable creation and update timestamps to the table.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function nullableTimestamps()
{
    $this->timestamp('created_at')->nullable();
    $this->timestamp('updated_at')->nullable();
}
/**
 * Add creation and update timestamps to the table.
 *
 * @return void
 */
public function timestamps()
{
    $this->timestamp('created_at');
    $this->timestamp('updated_at');
}

    For more information on this Laravel 5.1 code: https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/5.1/src/Illuminate/Database/Schema/Blueprint.php#L775

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