Seeding model rows based on the user input in Laravel
Oftentimes, it would be handy if you could seed the number of model rows based on the user input. i.e you don’t hardcode the number of rows a seeder would generate. The user will pass that number while running the seeder.
For instance, let’s say, we have a BookFactory.php factory under database/factories which looks like so.
<?php
namespace Database\Factories;
use App\Models\Book;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
class BookFactory extends Factory
{
/**
* The name of the factory's corresponding model.
*
* @var string
*/
protected $model = Book::class;
/**
* Define the model's default state.
*
* @return array
*/
public function definition()
{
return [
'title' => $this->faker->name,
'author' => $this->faker->name,
'published' => 1
];
}
}
And now, if you want to use this factory in the BookSeeder.php with a user-supplied number of rows to be generated, you can do it like so.
<?php
namespace Database\Seeders;
use App\Models\Book;
use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
class BookSeeder extends Seeder
{
/**
* Seed the application's database.
*
* @return void
*/
public function run()
{
$count = $this->command->ask(
'How many books you want to create?',
10
);
Book::factory((int)$count)->create();
}
}
Now, when you run the seeder using php artisan db:seed --class=BookSeeder, you will be prompted with the question “How many books you want to create?”. You can then provide the number of rows you want to seed or just press enter which will generate 10 rows by default.
Related ➔ Class based model factories in Laravel 8
Here’s how it would look like.
I got to know about this trick from this tweet by Srinath Reddy. Thanks mate!
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