Setting a default value in migration or Eloquent model?

Question

Basically you can define a default value for an Eloquent model via migrations or within the Eloquent model:

Define default value in migration example:

 $table->string('locale')->default('en');

Define default value within Eloquent model:

protected $attributes = ['locale' => 'en'];

What are the pros and cons of these two approaches? Which one is better (for a specific use case)?

Answer 1

If you use migrations, the default should be set in the migration. The main purpose for this is to allow anyone who might work on your app alongside you to see the database structure as a whole.

There really isn't a pro or con per-se to doing it this way or the Model way, other than having your structure in one place is the recommended. Your model should be light. Not a lot needs to be happening there. It can get confusing when you throw changes in all these different files.

It will come down to preference, but the recommended way is to use Migrations because that is the sole purpose of and why the migration exists, for table structure.

Answer 2

One thing to remember though, is that to change the default value when dealing with Migrations, you would need to create a new migration file. When using the Model approach, you could change the default value in the source code and that would be it.

There's different angles to which one is better based on this point, as creating a migration could be seen as a way to track DB changes - however version control and changing the source code is better suited to this so again it's something worth considering, but either works well.