Hi all! First time posting, let me know if I can structure my question better.

I am using Ecto migrations on a project and need to add columns with non-NULL constraints to a table with existing data. My down simply removes the columns. My up adds the columns, uses default values to get placeholder data in the DB, flushes, and then uses Ecto.Migration.modify/3 to add the non-NULL constraints and remove the defaults. However, when I look at the table description in Postgres, I see not null default NULL::character varying. It looks like the database still behaves properly, but shouldn’t this modifier be gone entirely?

Here’s my migration’s up:

  def up do
    # Step 1. Add location fields with default values
    alter table(:campuses) do
      add :street_1, :string, default: "__INVALID_STREET"
      add :street_2, :string
      add :city, :string, default: "__INVALID_CITY"
      add :state, :string, size: 2, default: "ZZ"
      add :zip, :string, size: 16, default: "__INVALID_CITY"
      add :lon, :float, default: 0.0
      add :lat, :float, default: 0.0
    end

    # Step 2. Execute above commands.
    flush()

    # Step 3. Remove default option and add null constraint
    alter table(:campuses) do
      modify :street_1, :string, null: false, default: nil
      modify :street_2, :string
      modify :city, :string, null: false, default: nil
      modify :state, :string, size: 2, null: false, default: nil
      modify :zip, :string, size: 16, null: false, default: nil
      modify :lon, :float, null: false, default: nil
      modify :lat, :float, null: false, default: nil
    end
  end

Thanks all!