Level 30
This package can handle relations through multiple tables (table 1 through table 2 through table 3 etc...): https://github.com/staudenmeir/eloquent-has-many-deep
Oct 21, 2025
5
Level 2
What is the best way to retrieve data from related tables?
Hello everyone. I have three tables that are related. In the handlers, given the record ID of the first table, I need to get an array of values from the third table with certain parameters. Can you tell me the best way to do this? I did it this way, but maybe it's not quite right and there's a better way.
// model 1 table
public function relation_1()
{
return $this->hasMany(TwoTable::class, 'two_id', 'id')
->with(['relation_2' => function ($query) {
$query->select('id', 'three_id')->where('status', 1);
}]);
}
// controller
...
$result = OneTable::with('relation_1')->find($id);
$collect_res = [];
if($result){
foreach ($result->relation_1 as $val) {
foreach ($val->relation_2 as $val_2) {
$collect_res[] = $val_2->id;
}
}
}
dd($collect_res);
Level 2
Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely check out the package. Doesn't it come with built-in mechanisms right out of the box for Laravel?
Level 30
Not in all cases. For example, native Eloquent can't handle BelongsToMany relation through multiple models with pivot tables involved.
Imagine you have models: countries, people, companies, and neccessary pivot tables between them. A person can have several citizenships:
- person -> belongsToMany -> country
- vice versa, country -> belongsToMany -> person
A person can work in several companies:
- person -> belongsToMany -> company
- and vice versa
So, you want to know which countries are represented in a given company. In other words, people of which countries are employed in a company. There is no way to do it using regular Eloquent (at least I haven't found it) while the package I mentioned can do that with ease.
Level 73
The best way is to customize the query to just fetch what you need, and not fetch all columns from all models involved. You can choose to do this with a mix of eloquent and the query builder, or just use raw SQL if that suits you better.
When it comes to more complex stuff I often use a database view.
https://tray2.se/posts/use-a-view-instead-of-a-complex-eloquent-query-in-your-laravel-application
Level 2
Yes, I'm trying to do that. For example, in this example, I only needed the IDs from the third table that matched the condition. I can hide some fields during the query directly in the model, but I'd like to know if there's a way to extract the required array directly, or if I have to assemble it manually?
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