How to seed a database table with sample data in Laravel?

To seed a database table with sample data in Laravel, follow these steps:

Create a new seeder class by executing the following command in your terminal:

php artisan make:seeder SampleDataTableSeeder

This will create a new seeder class named SampleDataTableSeeder inside the database/seeders directory.

Open the SampleDataTableSeeder class and define the run() method. This method will contain the code to insert sample data into the table. For example:

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

class SampleDataTableSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        SampleData::create([
            'column1' => 'value1',
            'column2' => 'value2',
        ]);

        SampleData::create([
            'column1' => 'value3',
            'column2' => 'value4',
        ]);

        // Add more sample data as needed
    }
}

Specify the seeder class in the DatabaseSeeder class located in the database/seeders directory. This class is responsible for calling all the individual seeder classes. Open the DatabaseSeeder class and call the SampleDataTableSeeder class as shown below:

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;

class DatabaseSeeder extends Seeder
{
    public function run()
    {
        $this->call(SampleDataTableSeeder::class);
    }
}

Run the seed command to populate the table with sample data. Open your terminal and execute the following command:

php artisan db:seed

This will execute the DatabaseSeeder class and populate the specified table with sample data defined in the SampleDataTableSeeder class.

Note: Make sure you have already created the table in your database before running the seed command.