How to Seed Multiple Rows at Once Using Laravel Factories

Often, we need to populate our database with default data, or we might need a large amount of data for testing our application at scale. Fortunately, Laravel factories allow you to generate any type and quantity of data you may need.

In this guide, we’ll be seeding multiple rows at once into a “products” table by using a model, factory and seeder in conjunction.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Creating a Laravel Project

Begin by creating a new Laravel project if you haven’t done so already. Open your terminal and run:

composer create-project laravel/laravel product-seeder-app
cd product-seeder-app

Step 2: Creating a Model and Migration

Let’s start by creating our Product model and migration by running:

php artisan make:model Product -m

Step 3: Adding Code to the Migration

Open the newly created migration file and define the up() and down() methods as follows:

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

return new class extends Migration
{
    /**
     * Run the migrations.
     */
    public function up(): void
    {
        Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->text('description');
            $table->decimal('price', 8, 2);
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    /**
     * Reverse the migrations.
     */
    public function down(): void
    {
        Schema::dropIfExists('products');
    }
};

Step 4: Running the Migration

To create the table, as defined in our migration, run the following artisan command:

php artisan migrate

Step 5: Creating a Factory

Next, create a factory for the Product model to generate sample data:

php artisan make:factory ProductFactory --model=Product

This command generates the ProductFactory.php file within the database/factories directory.

Step 6: Adding Code to the Factory

Within the ProductFactory.php file, define the attributes and their respective fake random data.

use App\Models\Product;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;

class ProductFactory extends Factory
{
    protected $model = Product::class;

    public function definition()
    {
        return [
            'name' => $this->faker->sentence(2),
            'description' => $this->faker->sentence(4),
            'price' => $this->faker->randomFloat(2, 10, 1000),
        ];
    }
}

Step 7: Seeding Multiple Rows

Now, let’s create a seeder to seed multiple rows using the factory. Generate a seeder for the Product model:

php artisan make:seeder ProductsTableSeeder

In the ProductsTableSeeder.php file, use the factory to seed multiple rows:

<?php

namespace Database\Seeders;

use App\Models\Product;
use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class ProductsTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     */
    public function run(): void
    {
        Product::factory()->count(10)->create();
    }
}

Step 8: Running the Seeder

Now let’s run our seeder by using the following artisan command:

php artisan db:seed --class=ProductsTableSeeder

Step 9: Check data in the database

Now we can verify we have 10 products generated by looking in our mysql database:

In this case, I used the command line mysql client to check the table’s content. You may also use other free tools like Heidi SQL (Windows), Sequel ACE (MAC).

That’s it! We’ve successfully generated 10 records of data. We can easily generate more by increasing the number in our ProductsTableSeeder.

Product::factory()->count(100000)->create(); // Generate a hundred thousand records

Conclusion

By following the steps in this tutorial, you’ve successfully set up a model, migration, factory, and seeder to seed multiple rows based on the Product Model using Laravel factories. This approach allows you to fill your database with realistic data, saving time and effort during development.

Happy coding!

Note: Factories also support seeding models with Relationships. Read our Guide Seeding a Model With Relationship Using Laravel Factories to learn more.

References:

• Database Seeding (Laravel Documentation)
• Eloquent Factories (Laravel Documentation)