Laravel trying to get data from the pivot table - php

Question

im trying to get the data linked to my model out of the pivot table (many to many relationship).
i put customers on a many to many relationship with departments.
the migration:
Schema::create('customer_department', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->bigIncrements('id');
$table->unsignedBigInteger('customer_id');
$table->unsignedBigInteger('department_id');
$table->timestamps();
$table->foreign('customer_id')
->references('id')
->on('customers');
$table->foreign('department_id')
->references('id')
->on('departments');
});
the customer model:
public function department(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Department');
}
the department model:
public function customer(){
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Customer');
}
now im trying to print out every department the customer is assigned to in the view. i tried
{{$customer->department}}
or
#foreach($customer->department as $depo)
{{$depo->name}}
#endforeach
or
{{$customer->pivot->department_id}}
...
the controller:
public function show(Customer $customer)
{
return view('/customers/customer', ['customer' => $customer]);
}
however i get several error messages, empty arrays or straightup nothing. what am i doing wrong? what did i forget?

Answer 1

You have to have the model retrieved via the Many to Many relationship for it to have this attached pivot model. $customer would not have this pivot but everything returned from $customer->department would have these pivot models attached:
#foreach ($customer->department as $department)
{{ $department->pivot->department_id }}
#endforeach
Though, in this case you don't need to involve the pivot model since you want information from the Department models:
#foreach ($customer->department as $department)
{{ $department->getKey() }}
{{ $department->name }}
#endforeach
It would be a good idea to name these relationships in the plural since they return many, not in the singular.