Be part of JetBrains PHPverse 2026 on June 9 – a free online event bringing PHP devs worldwide together.
Hello guys,
I've been struggling with this for a couple of weeks and I can't seem to find the answer anywhere.
I am trying to reference three foreign keys into one primary key on another table.
Here are some information:
User Table
|---------------------|
| id |
|---------------------|
| 1 |
|---------------------|
| 2 |
|---------------------|
| 3 |
|---------------------|
Service Table
Service table with three foreign keys referencing to user_id
|---------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
| id | tenant | service_person | landlord |
|---------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
User Model
public function service(){
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'id');
}
Service Model
public function tenant(){
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'id', 'tenant');
}
public function service_person(){
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'id', 'service_person');
}
public function landlord(){
return $this->belongsTo(User::class, 'id', 'landlord');
}
So when I try to query with User::find()->service with tinker, only one of my three users find results, which is the service_person. The other ones just return an empty object.
Query result:
>>> User::find(1)->service
=> Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#3125
all: [
App\Service {#3156
id: 1,
tenant: 2,
service_person: 1,
landlord: 3
},
],
}
>>> User::find(2)->service
=> Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#3165
all: [],
}
>>> User::find(3)->service
=> Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#3166
all: [],
}
Any idea on how can I achieve that?
Ideally I do not want to do a many to many relationship and create a pivot table.
Thank you in advance
In User model add:
public function tenants() {
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'tenant');
}
public function servicePeople() {
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'service_person');
}
public function landlords() {
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'landlord');
}
why not just store those three keys directly on the users table?
Then you can use simple belongsTo relationships, referencing the User class and the correct column
Alternatively, create a model for the services table and implement HasOneThrough relationship
https://laravel.com/docs/7.x/eloquent-relationships#has-one-through
Thank you for your answer, @michaloravec. How would that be beneficial for getting all the services related to the authenticated user with auth()->user()->service?
What I am trying to achieve is looking for all the services related to that user, doesn't matter if that user is the tenant, service_guy or landlord
You can do something like this.
Follow up on this question, a suggestion from a fellow dev on stack-overflow helped me with the code.
Here's his answer:
"i think the problem is for the User model 's relations:
User Model:
public function servicesTenants(){
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'tenant');
}
public function servicesPerson(){
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'service_person');
}
public function servicesLandlord(){
return $this->hasMany(Service::class, 'landlord');
}
now, you can try:
$user=User::with(['servicesLandlord','servicesPerson','servicesTenants'])->find($user_id);
if you want to get all user 's services regardless of the relation you can try:
$userServices=Service::where('tenant',$user_id)->orWhere('service_person',$user_id)->
orWhere('landlord',$user_id)->get();
```"
Creating a model for the services table and implement HasOneThrough relationship. run 3
Please or to participate in this conversation.