Laravel collections: Do something on the collection

Level 122

depends what that something is

there are loads of collection methods to choose from and of course they can also be chained

your code posted here gives no clue what you are trying to achieve?

1 like

Level 15

Hi @snapey,

If the $collection is an Eloquent Collection, I want to keep it and else I want to take the first item to chain new items on.

I hope you understand.

Thanks!

Level 122

a simpler way is just with an if statement.

if(! $collection instanceof Collection { 
    $collection = $collection[0];
}

then its easier to understand what is happening.

Personally, I would focus on making sure you always get a collection in the first place

Level 15

Hi @snapey,

I would like to chain it on. Isn't there really a way to do that?

Jeroen

untymage

Level 13

No need to check if its collection instance or not:

$collection
    ->when(true, fn(Collection $c) => $c->first());

Because laravel pass the collection instance behind the scene

Level 15

@untymage it's kind of hard to explain, but your solution does not work in my case

jlrdw

Level 75

What do you mean by Chain it on, could you give an example. I would stick with just working with SQL queries.

1 like

Level 15

@jlrdw yes:

$collection
    ->when(true, function($collection) {
        return $collection instanceof Collection ? $collection : $collection[0];
    })
    ->shuffle()
    ->take(5);

jlrdw

Level 75

$shuffled = $collection->shuffle()->take(3);

Try that.

dd($shuffled);

Level 122

is this such a hardship?

if(! $collection instanceof Collection { 
    $collection = $collection[0];
}

$collection->shuffle()
    ->take(5);

jlrdw

Level 75

@snapey just curious is my answer different from yours?

Above in a previous answer this part:

if(! $collection instanceof Collection { 
    $collection = $collection[0];
}

Was previously accomplished. I was just showing the part that would come after that.

I did however a assign a variable to work with.

Level 122

@jlrdw no, you are correct, the output from shuffle must be stored in a new variable.

Level 15

@snapey @jlrdw,

Thanks for these answers, but they don't really answer my question.

I really would like to chain it on, but I guess there is not any method available.

Thank you! Jeroen

Best Answer

Level 122

I was trying to say that, despite my long experience here, it was not immediately obvious what you were doing with the when collection method - especially with the boolean being true

perhaps then

$collection = 
	($collection instanceof Collection ? $collection : $collection[0])
	->shuffle()
    ->take(5);

1 like

Level 15

Thanks!

neilstee

Level 34

@jeroenvanrensen I think what is weird with your approach is you are expecting your $collection variable to be a Collection in the first place by using when.

// what if $collection is an array?
// "when" will be undefined in this case
$collection
    ->when(true, function($collection) {
        return $collection instanceof Collection ? $collection : $collection[0];
    });

@snapey solution is clean and safe IMO

if(! $collection instanceof Collection) { 
    $collection = $collection[0];
}

$collection->shuffle()->take(5); // but assumes [0] is a collection

So if you would want a 1 liner, chain method and preventing "undefined" errors, you might want to try this:

$collection = ($collection instanceof Collection ? $collection : collect($collection[0]))->shuffle()->take(5);

I know your goal is to chain those methods but maybe that is not the best approach and readable in the first place? For me @snapey 's approach using if is cleaner.

neilstee

Level 34

on that note, $collection[0] can be undefined so you might want to collect($collection[0] ?? []) which adds up to unreadability.

Level 15

No, I was making the difference between a normal collection (Illuminate\Support\Collection) and an Eloquent collection (`Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection')

Level 122

@neilstee makes a good point. The ->when function cannot be called if it is not a collection

kodyxgen