Level 88
Yeah, an array seems to be the best option here. You can use the method whereIn to make this work
Course::whereIn('name', ['englsh 1', 'basic english 1'])->first();
Well, you get the idea ;)
2 likes
Oct 6, 2020
5
Level 9
Find item that has different names but refer to the same item
I'm trying to do an import of a school's courses and their teacher and students, the thing is these are auto generated reports and sometimes a course will have more than one name depending on the course plan, for example a general english 1 class can have a different name if you're studying engineering or nursing, could be english 1 and basic english 1.
This is the small method I'm using to get the relevant course
private function getCourse($name, $num)
{
$course = Course::where('name', $name)->where('num', $num)->first();
if (empty($course)) {
$course = new Course();
}
return $course;
}
How can I in the best way check for these different names? Should I put them in an array or what's my best choice?
Level 122
each course needs a second column containing alternate names in a json array, then use the whereJsonContains of that column instead of the name column.
It depends if you have a compatible database?
Level 9
@snapey Not all courses have alternate names and these names would only be used in that one method I posted above, putting that in the database instead of just making an array in the method seems unnecessary to me.
1 like
Level 9
@bobbybouwmann How can I do that more dynamically? Right now I have around 16 courses but there are going to be a lot more how can I do this without a lot of if-elses? I had thought of something like this but if there end up being 50 or more courses with multiple names this method would be super long.
if ($name === 'Inglés I') {
$name = 'Inglés Básico I';
}
$course = Course::where('name', $name)->where('num', $num)->first();
if (empty($course)) {
$course = new Course();
}
return $course;
Level 88
Well, you have a few options here. The basic idea is the same though. You need to have a central place where you can map the name to a generic name. This can be a database or a config file as an example. Once you have a lookup structure like that, you can write one method that always gives back to the correct string for you, no matter what you feed it.
Here is a database example
$courseName = CourseNames::where('name', 'Inglés I')->first();
$courseName = CourseName::find(($courseName->parent_id);
$course = Course::where('name', $courseName->name)->where('num', $num)->first();
Another solution is using a one-to-many relationship. between course and coursename. This way, you can make it even simpler
As you can see, lot's of options here.
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