Laravel orderby uses

Not from the database, but if you have a collection of users you can use the collection method sortBy

$sorted = $collection->sortBy(function ($user, $key) {
    return $user->fullName();
});

@charlesk

You have a few options here-

• Create a view in your database, which has the column fullName. Then change your model to use the view.
• Create a computed column fullName so that on insert if will use the values given from firstName and lastName.
• Use Laravel's Collection class. This class provides a sortBy method in which you can use an attribute.

If you go with option 2, first define an attribute:

public function getFullNameAttribute()
{
    return $this->firstName . $this->lastName;
}

Then using Laravel's Collection:

$items = Model::all()->sortBy('FullName');

Please take a note that the default option for sortBy is ascending, so if you wish to sort descending:

$items = Model::all()->sortByDesc('FullName');

Check more: https://laravel.com/docs/master/eloquent-mutators#defining-an-accessor

Thanks @mikemacdowell and @tisuchi for your explained answer. Really appreciated your help.