Save, update and retrieve array to and from the database

$skill = new Skill;

says create a new skill.

You have made life hard by saving json string and not saving the actual skill.

Anyway, whatever, have a look at findOrCreate to get the previous skill for the user and overwrite it.

Oh, I see what I did.

$skill = new Skill;

This will create a new table row no matter what.

But saving $skills directly gives an error

preg_replace(): Parameter mismatch, pattern is a string while replacement is an array

How do you suggest I do this?

can't see any preg_replace in your code? What line errors?

From the error page, I can see this

at HasOneOrMany->save(object(Skill)) in UserController.php line 78

which is this line

$user->skill()->save($skill);

you only need

$skill->save()

I am still getting the same error and in the "skill_name" column in the database, the word "Array" is being saved.

show your controller?

There you go, and thank you so much.

public function saveSettings(Requests\SettingsUpdateRequest $request, Skill $skill) {
        $user = User::find(Auth::user()->id);

        $user->age = $request->input('age');
        $profile_picture = $request->file('profile_image_url');
        $profile_banner = $request->file('profile_banner_url');

        if($profile_picture) {
            $profile_picture_filename = str_random(8) . '-' . $user->id . '.' . $profile_picture->getClientOriginalExtension();
            Storage::disk('local')->put($profile_picture_filename, File::get($profile_picture));
            $user->profile_image_url = $profile_picture_filename;
        }
        if($profile_banner) {
            $profile_banner_filename = str_random(8) . '-' . $user->id . '.' . $profile_banner->getClientOriginalExtension();
            Storage::disk('local')->put($profile_banner_filename, File::get($profile_banner));
            $user->profile_banner_url = $profile_banner_filename;
        }

        $skills = $request->input('skills');
        $json_skills = serialize($skills);

        if($skills) {
            //$skill = new Skill;
            $skill->user_id = Auth::user()->id;
            $skill->skill_name = $skills;
            $skill->save();
        }

        $user->save();

        flash('Your profile has been updated.', 'success');

        return redirect()->back();
    }

Is this function meant to work when editing?

The problem is that you now are not initialising $skill at all. I said the wrong method earlier, you want to use the old skill for the user, or create a new skill.

   if($skills) {
            $skill = Skill::firstOrNew(['user_id',$user->id]);
            $skill->skill_name = $skills;
            $skill->save();
        }

I notice you are very inconsistent about the use of $user. There is no need to query the database for it at the start. just use $user=Auth::user(); and then just $user from then on.

Yes, the function works apart from the skills.

I got a new error this time, and it doesn't make any sense since I don't have columns in the db named 0 and 1

SQLSTATE[42S22]: Column not found: 1054 Unknown column '0' in 'where clause' (SQL: select * from users_skills where (0 = user_id and 1 = 7) limit 1)

Why is it trying to access a table users_skills, sounds like a pivot

You're right. I just realized that I don't need a separate table to store the skills because I'm using an array.

So I added a new column called skills and started saving using $user but I still got the same preg_match() error as before if I pass it as a normal array, but it works if I pass it as json.

preg_replace(): Parameter mismatch, pattern is a string while replacement is an array

$skills = $request->input('skills');
        $skills_json = serialize($skills);

        if($skills) {
            $user->skills = $skills;
        }

$user->save();

This is yet another interesting post. And yes.

well of course you cannot store an array in a column unless you serialise it first.

Keep this in mind for the future;https://mattstauffer.co/blog/new-json-column-where-and-update-syntax-in-laravel-5-3