Convert a Basic SQL Table to Drizzle Schema

From CREATE TABLE to Drizzle Table Definition

The most fundamental conversion takes a SQL CREATE TABLE statement and produces a Drizzle table definition using the appropriate dialect function (pgTable, mysqlTable, or sqliteTable). Each column becomes a call to a column builder function, and constraints are expressed as chained methods.

Example SQL

CREATE TABLE users (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  email VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  bio TEXT,
  is_active BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT true
);

Generated Drizzle Schema (PostgreSQL)

import { boolean, pgTable, serial, text, varchar } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: serial("id").primaryKey(),
  name: varchar("name", { length: 100 }).notNull(),
  email: varchar("email", { length: 255 }).notNull(),
  bio: text("bio"),
  isActive: boolean("is_active").default(true).notNull(),
});

Key Concepts

SQL Element	Drizzle Equivalent
Table name	First argument to pgTable()
Column name	First argument to the column builder
NOT NULL	.notNull() chain
Nullable column	No .notNull() (default behavior)
PRIMARY KEY	.primaryKey() chain
DEFAULT	.default(value) chain

Import Generation

Drizzle requires explicit imports for each column builder. The converter analyzes which builders are needed and generates a single import statement from the correct dialect module. Only the builders actually used in your schema are included, keeping the imports clean.

Variable Naming

The exported table variable uses camelCase derived from the SQL table name. For example, user_accounts becomes userAccounts. The original SQL table name is preserved as the first string argument to the table function.