Be part of JetBrains PHPverse 2026 on June 9 – a free online event bringing PHP devs worldwide together.
Hi,
How can I remove specified columns from a collection after using Query Builder's get()?
For example, I have a query:
$collection = DB::table('table')->get();
And I get a collection of all the columns:
Illuminate\Support\Collection {
#items: array:100 [
0 => {
"id": "1"
"first_name": "John"
"last_name": "Doe"
}
1 => {
...
}
2 => {
...
}
...
]
}
I use the same query in several pages. In some pages I need all the columns, but in some I don't need all, like in the above collection in some pages I don't want the id column, only first_name and last_name.
The forget() method doesn't work, I think because it's nested and the forget() tries to go by the numeric keys
How can I do that? So that my end collection would be:
Illuminate\Support\Collection {
#items: array:100 [
0 => {
"first_name": "John"
"last_name": "Doe"
}
1 => {
...
}
2 => {
...
}
...
]
}
thanks
@ligonsker You can try this:
$collection = DB::table('table')->get();
$modifiedCollection = $collection->transform(function ($item) {
unset($item->id); // If your items are objects
// or
// unset($item['id']); // If your items are arrays
return $item;
});
Personally, I would fetch whatever columns you want for the individual pages; the database query will be more efficient that looping over the entire collection in PHP.
Why not use select with separate query for each page ?
$collection = DB::table('table')->select(['first_name', 'last_name'])->get();
You guys are right I should use select, it's just that I am trying to reuse the same function that does the data fetching. But the data I need varies slightly for example when I want to export to excel and I don't need all the columns.
So perhaps I can add a condition in that function:
// in the controller
public function fetch_data($select = '*')
{
return DB::table->select($select)->get();
}
And then if I want to change the columns, I can do:
public function download_data(Request $request)
{
$select = 'first_name, last_name';
$collection = $this->fetch_data($select);
// continue . .
}
Would that be good?
@Ligonsker for this very simple example, I don't know that abstraction offers any benefits over directly querying the database. If your query is more complex, then maybe there is a benefit.
Otherwise, I would suggest passing an array of individual columns names rather than an arbitrary string:
// in the controller
public function fetch_data(array $select = ['*'])
{
return DB::table->select($select)->get();
}
public function download_data(Request $request)
{
$select = [
'first_name',
'last_name',
];
$collection = $this->fetch_data($select);
It will be clearer to reason about the columns selection(s) IMHO
@tykus Wow you read my mind, I was just about to ask if I can pass an array to the select() clause instead of using a string 😅
what are you saving by dropping the odd column? The memory has already been used.
@Snapey I need to drop it when using the excel export packages so not to show all the columns in the excel file for example
But perhaps I should do as others suggested and select only what's needed? And pass the desired columns to the function as I did in the above example? I want to avoid repeating the same query, and also in reality I also get some more query parameters to filter out the results so it means copying almost the exact same function
@Ligonsker I almost always map the columns within the export so its never an issue
@Ligonsker bear in mind that if you want related data you are going to need the primary key
If you want only two column you can go with pluck() method.
->pluck('firstname', 'lastname');
Please or to participate in this conversation.