laravel - display avatar if user upload it or use default image

@nickywan123 see http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php#language.operators.comparison.coalesce

Based on the doc, it means it will return the default pic if the "less hand side" is null or otherwise?

@nickywan123 yup. Both of these are functionally similar but first is more efficient as it only needs to parse first expression once.

$foo = $bar ?? 'something';
$foo = isset($bar) ? $bar : 'something';

It will mitigate for $user->userInfo or $user->userInfo->avatar being null

Thanks, didn't know I can resolve this using null coalescing operator.

@tykus Just wondering why my original way will not evaluate the else statement?

Because your code exits when you attempt to get the avatar of null ($user->userInfo). The null coalescing operator mitigates this situation.

@wakanda not a very DRY way of doing that TBH. all you need to do is alter the image src not duplicate the image tag. As @tykus answer best demonstrates.

Does not handle the OP's exact situation @wakanda because $user->userInfo is null, not $user->userInfo->avatar

@automica thanks, I agree coalescing operator is the best

@tykus thanks didnt notice that part

You mean change:

public function userInfo()
{
    return $this->hasOne(UserInfo::class)->withDefault([
        'avatar' => 'default.jpeg'
    ]);
}

to

public function info()
{
    return $this->hasOne(UserInfo::class)->withDefault([
        'avatar' => 'default.jpeg'
    ]);
}

?

Or do you mean to add these two as well?

@michaloravec awesome trick there, adopted

Given userInfo is a relationship on the User model (which wasn't clear from your original post), then this returns a default object from an otherwise null relation:

public function userInfo()
{
    return $this->hasOne(UserInfo::class)->withDefault([
        'avatar' => 'default.jpeg'
    ]);
}

Yes I didn't mention.

I have this relationship in my User model

public function userInfo()
{
    return $this->hasOne(UserInfo::class);
}

Will his solution be better?

Either one works. If you need a default UserInfo model in other circumstances then the relationship approach is likely preferable. However, sometimes you may want a null result for the relationship which this will prevent. It is really up to each individual use case.

@nickywan123 I meant change it to info()

Because I don't like when I have a code like

$user->userInfo->avatar;

The word user is duplicated in this case.

I prefer to have

$user->info->avatar;

But also info is a little bit for me. I would change it to profile, so my model would be UserProfile instead of UserInfo.

@tykus You can detect if it's a default model or not with exists property.

@michaloravec

Because I don't like when I have a code like $user->userInfo->avatar; The word user is duplicated in this case.

I call this ‘stutter’ . If sounds like you are repeating yourself then the method needs to be renamed.

Yeah exactly.

Okay. What if I change my migration for user info instead of the relationship model like :

$table -> string(‘avatar’”)->default(default.jpeg)

Is this the same as your solution ?