How to Get Data When Using first() Equivalent in Laravel Model? - php

Question

I use Laravel version 5.7 and want to get data from the database. I tried using $genre->name but it didn't work, and also I tried $genre->toArray() but got another error.
Controller
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use App\genre;
class Mins extends Controller
{
public function genget($data)
{
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
$genre = genre::where('name', $value)->first();
echo $genre->name;
}
}
}
Here's the data in $data when I var_dump.
array(4) { [0]=> string(6) "Comedy" [1]=> string(3)
"Action" [2]=> string(8) "Bad" [3]=> string(7) "Good" }
I'm getting the following error (echo in the controller):
"Trying to get property 'name' of non-object"
However, when I try to do dd($genre->name) in the controller I did get the data.
Model
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class genre extends Model
{
protected $fillable = ['name', 'slug'];
}
I'm also trying:
$genre = genre::where('name', $value)->first()->toArray();
dd($genre);
Response:
array:6 [▼
"id" => 1
"name" => "Comedy"
"slug" => "comedy"
"created_at" => "2019-01-11 15:02:31"
"updated_at" => "2019-01-11 15:02:31"
"deleted_at" => null
]
But when I call specified value like echo $g['name']; I get the error:
"Call to a member function toArray() on null"
I try to change the $value using a string like:
$genre = genre::where('name', 'Comedy')->first();
This works perfectly, does anyone know what the problem is?

Answer 1

Check for empty result :
foreach ($data as $key => $value)
{
$genre = genre::where('name', $value)->first();
if ($genre)
{
echo $genre->name;
}
}

Answer 2

Firstly, with the code in your example, I would suggest checking to see if the model actually exists before doing anything with it, this way you're not going to have an error thrown when it doesn't exist. When using first() it is either going to return the Eloquent model or null so an easy check would be something like:
$genre = genre::where('name', $value)->first();
if ($genre) {
echo $genre->name;
}
That being said, performing a query inside a loop is pretty inefficient and considered bad practice. In this case you'd be better of using whereIn() and then looping through the results:
public function genget($data)
{
$genres = genre::whereIn('name', $data)->get();
foreach ($genres as $genre) {
echo $genre->name;
}
}
This way you're only ever performing one query (instead of 4 like in your example) and you won't have to worry about them existing when you loop through them.
NB
This isn't essential but I would strongly recommend following the PSR's, specifically in this case PSR-1 - Namespace and Class Names so you're genre class should be Genre e.g.
class declaration: class Genre (not class genre)
class file name: Genre.php (not genre.php)
class usage: Genre::someMethod() (genre::someMethod())