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So basically to query my database tables I got used to using the where:: method instead of defining relationships in the model and using those methods to query the database. Would this be a matter of preference or are there advantages to using relationships instead of the where:: method? Thanks!
They are very different things.
Relationships are the relationships between two tables (One User has ten different Posts). Where queries are (mostly, there are exceptions of course) for filtering the results of a single table. (Give me all Users that are over 18 years old).
@ftiersch - you are right, however kind of both can be used I think. For example technically I can fetch the user ID and then use the where command in the posts table to fetch the posts belonging to that user ID.
i think relation methods use whereIn under the hood. i prefer relation methods
it's more elegant
auth()->user()->posts;
vs
Post::where('user_id', auth()->id())->get();
Of course you can do that (and that's exactly what relationships do basically), a relationship is just a lot more comfortable to use and comes with some added benefits so you have to think less about it :) Stuff like eager loading etc.
Yes that's right :) Relationships are more comfortable/elegant - just wanted to make sure that there's nothing technically wrong about using where::
Thanks!
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