Eloquent: Relationships
Introduction
Database tables are often related to one another. For example, a blog post may have many comments, or an order could be related to the user who placed it. Eloquent makes managing and working with these relationships easy, and supports several different types of relationships:
- One To One
- One To Many
- Many To Many
- Has One Through
- Has Many Through
- One To One (Polymorphic)
- One To Many (Polymorphic)
- Many To Many (Polymorphic)
Defining Relationships
Eloquent relationships are defined as methods on your Eloquent model classes. Since, like Eloquent models themselves, relationships also serve as powerful query builders, defining relationships as methods provides powerful method chaining and querying capabilities. For example, we may chain additional constraints on this posts relationship:
$user->posts()->where('active', 1)->get();
But, before diving too deep into using relationships, let's learn how to define each type.
Relationship names cannot collide with attribute names as that could lead to your model not being able to know which one to resolve.
One To One
A one-to-one relationship is a very basic relation. For example, a User model might be associated with one Phone. To define this relationship, we place a phone method on the User model. The phone method should call the hasOne method and return its result:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* Get the phone record associated with the user.
*/
public function phone()
{
return $this->hasOne('App\Phone');
}
}
The first argument passed to the hasOne method is the name of the related model. Once the relationship is defined, we may retrieve the related record using Eloquent's dynamic properties. Dynamic properties allow you to access relationship methods as if they were properties defined on the model:
$phone = User::find(1)->phone;
Eloquent determines the foreign key of the relationship based on the model name. In this case, the Phone model is automatically assumed to have a user_id foreign key. If you wish to override this convention, you may pass a second argument to the hasOne method:
return $this->hasOne('App\Phone', 'foreign_key');
Additionally, Eloquent assumes that the foreign key should have a value matching the id (or the custom $primaryKey) column of the parent. In other words, Eloquent will look for the value of the user's id column in the user_id column of the Phone record. If you would like the relationship to use a value other than id, you may pass a third argument to the hasOne method specifying your custom key:
return $this->hasOne('App\Phone', 'foreign_key', 'local_key');
Defining The Inverse Of The Relationship
So, we can access the Phone model from our User. Now, let's define a relationship on the Phone model that will let us access the User that owns the phone. We can define the inverse of a hasOne relationship using the belongsTo method:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Phone extends Model
{
/**
* Get the user that owns the phone.
*/
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
}
}
In the example above, Eloquent will try to match the user_id from the Phone model to an id on the User model. Eloquent determines the default foreign key name by examining the name of the relationship method and suffixing the method name with _id. However, if the foreign key on the Phone model is not user_id, you may pass a custom key name as the second argument to the belongsTo method:
/**
* Get the user that owns the phone.
*/
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\User', 'foreign_key');
}
If your parent model does not use id as its primary key, or you wish to join the child model to a different column, you may pass a third argument to the belongsTo method specifying your parent table's custom key:
/**
* Get the user that owns the phone.
*/
public function user()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\User', 'foreign_key', 'other_key');
}
One To Many
A one-to-many relationship is used to define relationships where a single model owns any amount of other models. For example, a blog post may have an infinite number of comments. Like all other Eloquent relationships, one-to-many relationships are defined by placing a function on your Eloquent model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Post extends Model
{
/**
* Get the comments for the blog post.
*/
public function comments()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Comment');
}
}
Remember, Eloquent will automatically determine the proper foreign key column on the Comment model. By convention, Eloquent will take the "snake case" name of the owning model and suffix it with _id. So, for this example, Eloquent will assume the foreign key on the Comment model is post_id.
Once the relationship has been defined, we can access the collection of comments by accessing the comments property. Remember, since Eloquent provides "dynamic properties", we can access relationship methods as if they were defined as properties on the model:
$comments = App\Post::find(1)->comments;
foreach ($comments as $comment) {
//
}
Since all relationships also serve as query builders, you can add further constraints to which comments are retrieved by calling the comments method and continuing to chain conditions onto the query:
$comment = App\Post::find(1)->comments()->where('title', 'foo')->first();
Like the hasOne method, you may also override the foreign and local keys by passing additional arguments to the hasMany method:
return $this->hasMany('App\Comment', 'foreign_key');
return $this->hasMany('App\Comment', 'foreign_key', 'local_key');
One To Many (Inverse)
Now that we can access all of a post's comments, let's define a relationship to allow a comment to access its parent post. To define the inverse of a hasMany relationship, define a relationship function on the child model which calls the belongsTo method:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Comment extends Model
{
/**
* Get the post that owns the comment.
*/
public function post()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Post');
}
}
Once the relationship has been defined, we can retrieve the Post model for a Comment by accessing the post "dynamic property":
$comment = App\Comment::find(1);
echo $comment->post->title;
In the example above, Eloquent will try to match the post_id from the Comment model to an id on the Post model. Eloquent determines the default foreign key name by examining the name of the relationship method and suffixing the method name with a _ followed by the name of the primary key column. However, if the foreign key on the Comment model is not post_id, you may pass a custom key name as the second argument to the belongsTo method:
/**
* Get the post that owns the comment.
*/
public function post()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Post', 'foreign_key');
}
If your parent model does not use id as its primary key, or you wish to join the child model to a different column, you may pass a third argument to the belongsTo method specifying your parent table's custom key:
/**
* Get the post that owns the comment.
*/
public function post()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Post', 'foreign_key', 'other_key');
}
Many To Many
Many-to-many relations are slightly more complicated than hasOne and hasMany relationships. An example of such a relationship is a user with many roles, where the roles are also shared by other users. For example, many users may have the role of "Admin".
Table Structure
To define this relationship, three database tables are needed: users, roles, and role_user. The role_user table is derived from the alphabetical order of the related model names, and contains the user_id and role_id columns:
users
id - integer
name - string
roles
id - integer
name - string
role_user
user_id - integer
role_id - integer
Model Structure
Many-to-many relationships are defined by writing a method that returns the result of the belongsToMany method. For example, let's define the roles method on our User model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The roles that belong to the user.
*/
public function roles()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role');
}
}
Once the relationship is defined, you may access the user's roles using the roles dynamic property:
$user = App\User::find(1);
foreach ($user->roles as $role) {
//
}
Like all other relationship types, you may call the roles method to continue chaining query constraints onto the relationship:
$roles = App\User::find(1)->roles()->orderBy('name')->get();
As mentioned previously, to determine the table name of the relationship's joining table, Eloquent will join the two related model names in alphabetical order. However, you are free to override this convention. You may do so by passing a second argument to the belongsToMany method:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role', 'role_user');
In addition to customizing the name of the joining table, you may also customize the column names of the keys on the table by passing additional arguments to the belongsToMany method. The third argument is the foreign key name of the model on which you are defining the relationship, while the fourth argument is the foreign key name of the model that you are joining to:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role', 'role_user', 'user_id', 'role_id');
Defining The Inverse Of The Relationship
To define the inverse of a many-to-many relationship, you place another call to belongsToMany on your related model. To continue our user roles example, let's define the users method on the Role model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Role extends Model
{
/**
* The users that belong to the role.
*/
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User');
}
}
As you can see, the relationship is defined exactly the same as its User counterpart, with the exception of referencing the App\User model. Since we're reusing the belongsToMany method, all of the usual table and key customization options are available when defining the inverse of many-to-many relationships.
Retrieving Intermediate Table Columns
As you have already learned, working with many-to-many relations requires the presence of an intermediate table. Eloquent provides some very helpful ways of interacting with this table. For example, let's assume our User object has many Role objects that it is related to. After accessing this relationship, we may access the intermediate table using the pivot attribute on the models:
$user = App\User::find(1);
foreach ($user->roles as $role) {
echo $role->pivot->created_at;
}
Notice that each Role model we retrieve is automatically assigned a pivot attribute. This attribute contains a model representing the intermediate table, and may be used like any other Eloquent model.
By default, only the model keys will be present on the pivot object. If your pivot table contains extra attributes, you must specify them when defining the relationship:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role')->withPivot('column1', 'column2');
If you want your pivot table to have automatically maintained created_at and updated_at timestamps, use the withTimestamps method on the relationship definition:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role')->withTimestamps();
Customizing The pivot Attribute Name
As noted earlier, attributes from the intermediate table may be accessed on models using the pivot attribute. However, you are free to customize the name of this attribute to better reflect its purpose within your application.
For example, if your application contains users that may subscribe to podcasts, you probably have a many-to-many relationship between users and podcasts. If this is the case, you may wish to rename your intermediate table accessor to subscription instead of pivot. This can be done using the as method when defining the relationship:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Podcast')
->as('subscription')
->withTimestamps();
Once this is done, you may access the intermediate table data using the customized name:
$users = User::with('podcasts')->get();
foreach ($users->flatMap->podcasts as $podcast) {
echo $podcast->subscription->created_at;
}
Filtering Relationships Via Intermediate Table Columns
You can also filter the results returned by belongsToMany using the wherePivot, wherePivotIn, and wherePivotNotIn methods when defining the relationship:
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role')->wherePivot('approved', 1);
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role')->wherePivotIn('priority', [1, 2]);
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Role')->wherePivotNotIn('priority', [1, 2]);
Defining Custom Intermediate Table Models
If you would like to define a custom model to represent the intermediate table of your relationship, you may call the using method when defining the relationship. Custom many-to-many pivot models should extend the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Pivot class while custom polymorphic many-to-many pivot models should extend the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\MorphPivot class. For example, we may define a Role which uses a custom RoleUser pivot model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Role extends Model
{
/**
* The users that belong to the role.
*/
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User')->using('App\RoleUser');
}
}
When defining the RoleUser model, we will extend the Pivot class:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\Pivot;
class RoleUser extends Pivot
{
//
}
You can combine using and withPivot in order to retrieve columns from the intermediate table. For example, you may retrieve the created_by and updated_by columns from the RoleUser pivot table by passing the column names to the withPivot method:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Role extends Model
{
/**
* The users that belong to the role.
*/
public function users()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\User')
->using('App\RoleUser')
->withPivot([
'created_by',
'updated_by',
]);
}
}
Pivot models may not use the SoftDeletes trait. If you need to soft delete pivot records consider converting your pivot model to an actual Eloquent model.
Custom Pivot Models And Incrementing IDs
If you have defined a many-to-many relationship that uses a custom pivot model, and that pivot model has an auto-incrementing primary key, you should ensure your custom pivot model class defines an incrementing property that is set to true.
/**
* Indicates if the IDs are auto-incrementing.
*
* @var bool
*/
public $incrementing = true;
Has One Through
The "has-one-through" relationship links models through a single intermediate relation.
For example, in a vehicle repair shop application, each Mechanic may have one Car, and each Car may have one Owner. While the Mechanic and the Owner have no direct connection, the Mechanic can access the Owner through the Car itself. Let's look at the tables necessary to define this relationship:
mechanics
id - integer
name - string
cars
id - integer
model - string
mechanic_id - integer
owners
id - integer
name - string
car_id - integer
Now that we have examined the table structure for the relationship, let's define the relationship on the Mechanic model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Mechanic extends Model
{
/**
* Get the car's owner.
*/
public function carOwner()
{
return $this->hasOneThrough('App\Owner', 'App\Car');
}
}
The first argument passed to the hasOneThrough method is the name of the final model we wish to access, while the second argument is the name of the intermediate model.
Typical Eloquent foreign key conventions will be used when performing the relationship's queries. If you would like to customize the keys of the relationship, you may pass them as the third and fourth arguments to the hasOneThrough method. The third argument is the name of the foreign key on the intermediate model. The fourth argument is the name of the foreign key on the final model. The fifth argument is the local key, while the sixth argument is the local key of the intermediate model:
class Mechanic extends Model
{
/**
* Get the car's owner.
*/
public function carOwner()
{
return $this->hasOneThrough(
'App\Owner',
'App\Car',
'mechanic_id', // Foreign key on cars table...
'car_id', // Foreign key on owners table...
'id', // Local key on mechanics table...
'id' // Local key on cars table...
);
}
}
Has Many Through
The "has-many-through" relationship provides a convenient shortcut for accessing distant relations via an intermediate relation. For example, a Country model might have many Post models through an intermediate User model. In this example, you could easily gather all blog posts for a given country. Let's look at the tables required to define this relationship:
countries
id - integer
name - string
users
id - integer
country_id - integer
name - string
posts
id - integer
user_id - integer
title - string
Though posts does not contain a country_id column, the hasManyThrough relation provides access to a country's posts via $country->posts. To perform this query, Eloquent inspects the country_id on the intermediate users table. After finding the matching user IDs, they are used to query the posts table.
Now that we have examined the table structure for the relationship, let's define it on the Country model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Country extends Model
{
/**
* Get all of the posts for the country.
*/
public function posts()
{
return $this->hasManyThrough('App\Post', 'App\User');
}
}
The first argument passed to the hasManyThrough method is the name of the final model we wish to access, while the second argument is the name of the intermediate model.
Typical Eloquent foreign key conventions will be used when performing the relationship's queries. If you would like to customize the keys of the relationship, you may pass them as the third and fourth arguments to the hasManyThrough method. The third argument is the name of the foreign key on the intermediate model. The fourth argument is the name of the foreign key on the final model. The fifth argument is the local key, while the sixth argument is the local key of the intermediate model:
class Country extends Model
{
public function posts()
{
return $this->hasManyThrough(
'App\Post',
'App\User',
'country_id', // Foreign key on users table...
'user_id', // Foreign key on posts table...
'id', // Local key on countries table...
'id' // Local key on users table...
);
}
}
Polymorphic Relationships
A polymorphic relationship allows the target model to belong to more than one type of model using a single association.
One To One (Polymorphic)
Table Structure
A one-to-one polymorphic relation is similar to a simple one-to-one relation; however, the target model can belong to more than one type of model on a single association. For example, a blog Post and a User may share a polymorphic relation to an Image model. Using a one-to-one polymorphic relation allows you to have a single list of unique images that are used for both blog posts and user accounts. First, let's examine the table structure:
posts
id - integer
name - string
users
id - integer
name - string
images
id - integer
url - string
imageable_id - integer
imageable_type - string
Take note of the imageable_id and imageable_type columns on the images table. The imageable_id column will contain the ID value of the post or user, while the imageable_type column will contain the class name of the parent model. The imageable_type column is used by Eloquent to determine which "type" of parent model to return when accessing the imageable relation.
Model Structure
Next, let's examine the model definitions needed to build this relationship:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Image extends Model
{
/**
* Get the owning imageable model.
*/
public function imageable()
{
return $this->morphTo();
}
}
class Post extends Model
{
/**
* Get the post's image.
*/
public function image()
{
return $this->morphOne('App\Image', 'imageable');
}
}
class User extends Model
{
/**
* Get the user's image.
*/
public function image()
{
return $this->morphOne('App\Image', 'imageable');
}
}
Retrieving The Relationship
Once your database table and models are defined, you may access the relationships via your models. For example, to retrieve the image for a post, we can use the image dynamic property:
$post = App\Post::find(1);
$image = $post->image;
You may also retrieve the parent from the polymorphic model by accessing the name of the method that performs the call to morphTo. In our case, that is the imageable method on the Image model. So, we will access that method as a dynamic property:
$image = App\Image::find(1);
$imageable = $image->imageable;
The imageable relation on the Image model will return either a Post or User instance, depending on which type of model owns the image. If you need to specify custom type and id columns for the morphTo relation, always ensure you pass the relationship name (which should exactly match the method name) as the first parameter:
/**
* Get the model that the image belongs to.
*/
public function imageable()
{
return $this->morphTo(__FUNCTION__, 'imageable_type', 'imageable_id');
}
One To Many (Polymorphic)
Table Structure
A one-to-many polymorphic relation is similar to a simple one-to-many relation; however, the target model can belong to more than one type of model on a single association. For example, imagine users of your application can "comment" on both posts and videos. Using polymorphic relationships, you may use a single comments table for both of these scenarios. First, let's examine the table structure required to build this relationship:
posts
id - integer
title - string
body - text
videos
id - integer
title - string
url - string
comments
id - integer
body - text
commentable_id - integer
commentable_type - string
Model Structure
Next, let's examine the model definitions needed to build this relationship:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Comment extends Model
{
/**
* Get the owning commentable model.
*/
public function commentable()
{
return $this->morphTo();
}
}
class Post extends Model
{
/**
* Get all of the post's comments.
*/
public function comments()
{
return $this->morphMany('App\Comment', 'commentable');
}
}
class Video extends Model
{
/**
* Get all of the video's comments.
*/
public function comments()
{
return $this->morphMany('App\Comment', 'commentable');
}
}
Retrieving The Relationship
Once your database table and models are defined, you may access the relationships via your models. For example, to access all of the comments for a post, we can use the comments dynamic property:
$post = App\Post::find(1);
foreach ($post->comments as $comment) {
//
}
You may also retrieve the owner of a polymorphic relation from the polymorphic model by accessing the name of the method that performs the call to morphTo. In our case, that is the commentable method on the Comment model. So, we will access that method as a dynamic property:
$comment = App\Comment::find(1);
$commentable = $comment->commentable;
The commentable relation on the Comment model will return either a Post or Video instance, depending on which type of model owns the comment.