Laravel seeder for table that is hardcoded

I have several tables in my database that are simply used for reference in my application.

For example, a table that has two columns, State and State Abbreviation, and has all 50 states and their abbreviations as rows.

State       | State Abbreviation
Alabama     | AL
Alaska      | AK
...

I want to write seeders for these tables in Laravel, since I want these tables to exist when I start a new version of the application.

What is the best way of storing this data and creating these seeders?

Answer

Seeders are for more than just test data — and they are perfect for static data.

It won’t take too long to just manually create the seeder, but instead of rebuilding the wheel, you can use this courtesy of ggoforth: https://github.com/ggoforth/laravel-5-us-states-seeder/blob/master/StatesSeeder.php

<?php

use AppState;
use IlluminateDatabaseSeeder;
use IlluminateSupportFacadesDB;

class StatesSeeder extends Seeder {

    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {

        DB::table('states')->truncate();

        State::create(['name' => 'Alaska', 'code' => 'AK']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Alabama', 'code' => 'AL']);
        State::create(['name' => 'American Samoa', 'code' => 'AS']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Arizona', 'code' => 'AZ']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Arkansas', 'code' => 'AR']);
        State::create(['name' => 'California', 'code' => 'CA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Colorado', 'code' => 'CO']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Connecticut', 'code' => 'CT']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Delaware', 'code' => 'DE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'District of Columbia', 'code' => 'DC']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Federated States of Micronesia', 'code' => 'FM']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Florida', 'code' => 'FL']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Georgia', 'code' => 'GA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Guam', 'code' => 'GU']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Hawaii', 'code' => 'HI']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Idaho', 'code' => 'ID']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Illinois', 'code' => 'IL']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Indiana', 'code' => 'IN']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Iowa', 'code' => 'IA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Kansas', 'code' => 'KS']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Kentucky', 'code' => 'KY']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Louisiana', 'code' => 'LA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Maine', 'code' => 'ME']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Marshall Islands', 'code' => 'MH']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Maryland', 'code' => 'MD']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Massachusetts', 'code' => 'MA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Michigan', 'code' => 'MI']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Minnesota', 'code' => 'MN']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Mississippi', 'code' => 'MS']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Missouri', 'code' => 'MO']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Montana', 'code' => 'MT']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Nebraska', 'code' => 'NE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Nevada', 'code' => 'NV']);
        State::create(['name' => 'New Hampshire', 'code' => 'NH']);
        State::create(['name' => 'New Jersey', 'code' => 'NJ']);
        State::create(['name' => 'New Mexico', 'code' => 'NM']);
        State::create(['name' => 'New York', 'code' => 'NY']);
        State::create(['name' => 'North Carolina', 'code' => 'NC']);
        State::create(['name' => 'North Dakota', 'code' => 'ND']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Northern Mariana Islands', 'code' => 'MP']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Ohio', 'code' => 'OH']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Oklahoma', 'code' => 'OK']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Oregon', 'code' => 'OR']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Palau', 'code' => 'PW']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Pennsylvania', 'code' => 'PA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Puerto Rico', 'code' => 'PR']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Rhode Island', 'code' => 'RI']);
        State::create(['name' => 'South Carolina', 'code' => 'SC']);
        State::create(['name' => 'South Dakota', 'code' => 'SD']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Tennessee', 'code' => 'TN']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Texas', 'code' => 'TX']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Utah', 'code' => 'UT']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Vermont', 'code' => 'VT']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Virgin Islands', 'code' => 'VI']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Virginia', 'code' => 'VA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Washington', 'code' => 'WA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'West Virginia', 'code' => 'WV']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Wisconsin', 'code' => 'WI']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Wyoming', 'code' => 'WY']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Africa', 'code' => 'AE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Americas (except Canada)', 'code' => 'AA']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Canada', 'code' => 'AE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Europe', 'code' => 'AE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Middle East', 'code' => 'AE']);
        State::create(['name' => 'Armed Forces Pacific', 'code' => 'AP']);
    }

}