Laravel integer v biginteger in foreign keys - laravel

Question

I'm trying to assign big integers in my columns but it won't allow me to define the relationship unless I change it to standard integer. No biggy, but would be interested to know why this throws up migration errors for me.
MIGRATION (working)
public function up()
{
//create the table
Schema::create(self::TBL_eportfoliouservalues, function($table){
$table->engine = 'InnoDB';
$table->increments('id');
$table->integer('user')->unsigned()->index();
$table->integer('document')->unsigned()->index();
$table->integer('section')->unsigned()->index();
$table->integer('element')->unsigned()->index();
$table->integer('parent');
$table->text('value');
// foreign indexes
$table->foreign('user')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('document')->references('id')->on('eportfoliodocuments')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('section')->references('id')->on('eportfoliosections')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('element')->references('id')->on('eportfolioformelements')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
});
}
MIGRATION (not working)
public function up()
{
//create the table
Schema::create(self::TBL_eportfoliouservalues, function($table){
$table->engine = 'InnoDB';
$table->increments('id');
$table->bigInteger('user')->unsigned()->index();
$table->bigInteger('document')->unsigned()->index();
$table->bigInteger('section')->unsigned()->index();
$table->bigInteger('element')->unsigned()->index();
$table->bigInteger('parent');
$table->text('value');
// foreign indexes
$table->foreign('user')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('document')->references('id')->on('eportfoliodocuments')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('section')->references('id')->on('eportfoliosections')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
$table->foreign('element')->references('id')->on('eportfolioformelements')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
});
}
ERROR
[Exception]
SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1005 Can't create table 'drillers.#sql-1a4_2c2' (errno: 150) (SQL:
alter table `eportfoliouservalues` add constraint eportfoliouservalues_user_foreign foreign key (
`user`) references `users` (`id`) on delete cascade on update cascade) (Bindings: array (
))

Answer 1

How are the IDs defined on the other tables? If you use $table->increments('id') then that will create columns of the type integer, and as the foreign key field has to match the primary key field on the other table, you won't be able to create a relationship.
The way to get around this would be to use $table->bigIncrements('id') on the other tables.

Answer 2

If primary key in tableOne migration (by default it is ) is BigInteger
So the foreign key in tableTwo migration should be bigInteger with unsigned() function.
Codes for example.
Migration for tableOne
public function up()
{
Schema::create('tableOne', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
}
Migration for tableTwo
public function up()
{
Schema::create('tableTwo', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->bigInteger('fk_id')->unsigned()->nullable() ;
$table->bigInteger('fk_id')->default(20)->change();
$table->foreign('fk_id')->references('id')->on('tableOne');
}
Hope this helps someone.

Answer 3

This is late to the party but I thought should be shared somewhere.
This was a perfectly valid upgrade that was not so well documented. The type needs to match for ids and foreign keys.
This script outputs the migration you need.
Use at your own risk having BACKED UP YOUR DATABASE. Make a migration and add the following to up(). Leave down() empty so you can rollback and tweak as needed. It will not actually do anything but will output what needs to be done. You can then paste the output into your migration file once you are happy with what you see.
If you uncomment the echos you can see what was looked at and determined needs changing.
$tableName = $table->Tables_in_yourdatabasename; //eg Tables_in_myproject
Modify the above line in the code below
$tables = \DB::select('SHOW TABLES');
// this just to get the tabs right in sublime;
$i = 0;
foreach($tables as $table) {
// ### Change yourdatabasename below ###
$tableName = $table->Tables_in_yourdatabasename;
// echo "#######################\n";
// echo '########## '.$tableName."##########\n\n";
$columns = \DB::select('show columns from ' . $tableName);
foreach ($columns as $value) {
if((substr($value->Field, -2) === 'id') && (substr($value->Type,0,3) === "int" || substr($value->Type,0,6) === "bigint")) {
// echo "$value->Field : type is '$value->Type'\n" ;
if(substr($value->Type,0,6) === "bigint") {
// echo "No Change needed\n";
}
if(substr($value->Type,0,3) === "int") {
// echo "To Update $value->Field to 'BIGINT':\n\n";
if($i === 0) {
echo 'Schema::table(\''.$tableName.'\', function (Blueprint $table) {'."\n";
$i++; //only matters for the first row. For the tabs.
}else{
echo "\t\t".'Schema::table(\''.$tableName.'\', function (Blueprint $table) {'."\n";
}
// maintain the auto increment
if($value->Field === 'id') {
echo "\t\t".' $table->bigIncrements(\'id\')->change();'."\n\t\t";
}else{
echo "\t\t".' $table->bigInteger(\''.$value->Field.'\')->unsigned()->change();'."\n\t\t";
}
echo '});'."\n";
}
}
}
// echo "\n\n";
}
Be careful and examine the output carefully as you may not want to change all the tables. I would skip the migrations table for example as I doubt you will reference it.
In case I didn't say it. BACK UP YOUR DATABASE FIRST. Good Luck