Add Alphabetize Schema Columns To Keep Them Consistent as a Rails TIL

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1220 TILs and counting..._
+_1221 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -708,6 +708,7 @@ _1220 TILs and counting..._
 - [Advance The Date](rails/advance-the-date.md)
 - [Allow List Params Anywhere With Strong Params](rails/allow-list-params-anywhere-with-strong-params.md)
 - [All or Nothing Database Transactions](rails/all-or-nothing-database-transactions.md)
+- [Alphabetize Schema Columns To Keep Them Consistent](rails/alphabetize-schema-columns-to-keep-them-consistent.md)
 - [Assert Two Arrays Have The Same Items With RSpec](rails/assert-two-arrays-have-the-same-items-with-rspec.md)
 - [Attach A File With Capybara](rails/attach-a-file-with-capybara.md)
 - [Attribute Getter without the Recursion](rails/attribute-getter-without-the-recursion.md)

rails/alphabetize-schema-columns-to-keep-them-consistent.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# Alphabetize Schema Columns To Keep Them Consistent
+
+When working on a Rails project with a team, there can be lots of unnecessary
+churn in the `db/schema.rb` file. While there are a couple things that can
+cause this churn, the main one is reordering of columns during local migration.
+
+The [`strong_migrations` gem](https://github.com/ankane/strong_migrations)
+provides [a handy rake task to apply alphabetical ordering to columns
+names](https://github.com/ankane/strong_migrations#schema-sanity). This keeps
+them in a consistent order which reduces churn.
+
+Assuming you have the `strong_migrations` gem included in your app, add the
+following line to the end of your `Rakefile`.
+
+```ruby
+task "db:schema:dump": "strong_migrations:alphabetize_columns"
+```
+
+This sets `strong_migrations:alphabetize_columns` as a prerequisite task to
+`db:schema:dump`. Whenever `db:schema:dump` gets run, the alphabetization task
+will get run first. This ensures the resulting `db/schema.rb` file always has
+column names in a consistent order.
+
+The origin of this idea is Paul Gross's blog post [Alphabetize schema.rb
+Columns](https://www.pgrs.net/2008/03/12/alphabetize-schema-rb-columns/).