Laravel access relationship models in factories - php

Question

I'm working inside a Laravel 9 project and am using model factories. I have User which can have one Company.
I need the CompanyFactory details to be linked to the User, such as the first name and last name. The user_id is already mapped with Laravel.
This is my attempt, or what I thought I could do within the CompanyFactory:
$this->user->first_name
Which is undefined?
Here's my seeder:
// development seeders
User::factory(2)
->has(Affiliate::factory()->count(50))
->has(Company::factory()->count(1))
->has(Country::factory()->count(3))
->create();
And my CompanyFactory
<?php
namespace Database\Factories;
use App\Models\User;
use App\Models\Country;
use App\Models\Company;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\Factory;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use Carbon\Carbon;
class CompanyFactory extends Factory
{
/**
* The name of the factory's corresponding model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $model = Company::class;
/**
* Define the model's default state.
*
* #return array
*/
public function definition()
{
Log::debug('user', [
'user' => $this->user,
]);
return [
'contact_first_name' => $user->first_name,
'contact_last_name' => $user->last_name ? $user->last_name : null,
'company_name' => $this->faker->company(),
'address_1' => $this->faker->numberBetween(1, 16),
'address_2' => 'Heatherbell Cottages',
'address_3' => null,
'town' => 'Wick',
'county' => 'Caithness',
'postcode' => 'KW14YT',
'telephone_1' => $this->faker->regexify('07[1-57-9]{1}[0-9]{8}'),
'telephone_2' => $this->faker->regexify('07[1-57-9]{1}[0-9]{8}'),
'email' => $user->email,
'bank_name' => $this->faker->word(),
'bank_account_number' => $this->faker->numberBetween(11111111, 99999999),
'bank_sort_code' => $this->faker->numberBetween(111111, 999999),
'bank_iban' => $country ? $this->faker->iban($country->country_code) : null,
'bank_swift' => '',
'ccl_number' => null,
'data_protection_number' => $this->faker->numberBetween(11111111, 99999999),
'currency' => $country ? $country->currency_code : 'GBP',
'notes' => ''
];
}
}

Answer 1

You might have a belongsTo relation in the Company model.
You can use code like this.
$company = Company::factory()
->for(User::factory()->state([
'name' => 'User name',
]))
->create();
OR
$user = User::factory()->create();
$company = Company::factory()
->for($user)
->create();
https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/eloquent-factories#belongs-to-relationships