Laravel Relationship between 3 tables - php

Question

so I am trying to get the category name and this is what I have
tablets:
categories: id,name
post_categories: id, post_id, category_id
post : id, columns
I have the models: Post, PostCategory and Category.
Post Model :
public function categories()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\PostCategory');
}
PostCategory Model :
public function category()
{
return $this->hasMany(Category::class, 'id', 'category_id');
}
and in the controller I have
return Post::with('categories.category')->orderby('id','desc')->get();
And my result is
[
{
"id": 50,
"categories": [
{
"id": 92,
"category_id": 11,
"category": [
{
"id": 11,
"name": "JXrfLHdQVNON",
"image": null
}
]
}
]
}
]
and i wanted it to be something like
[
{
"id": 50,
"categories": [
{
"id": 1,
"name": "category_name",
"image": null
}
]
}
]
Is there a way to do it? I have been playing around with this and havent manage to find a easy way to do it

Answer 1

inside your Post model :
public function categories()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('App\Model\Category','post_categories','post_id','category_id')->withTimestamps();
}
in your controller :
return Post::with('categories:id,name,image')->orderBy('id','desc')->get();

Answer 2

This is a many-to-many relationship. Make sure you have your relationship set up correctly. If you want to choose specific columns you can do:
return Post::with('categories.category:id,name')->orderby('id','desc')->get();
It will return the columns id, name from category table/ model. You must specify id doing that.
https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent-relationships#many-to-many
https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/eloquent-relationships#eager-loading