Laravel - Eloquent 3 Table Query - php

Question

I know there are several questions out there on 3 table joins, but the examples are simpler than my set up.
I have three tables: Items, Attributes, Categories.
`item.item_code = attributes.item_code`
`attributes.category_id = category.id`
Using eloquent, I can access attributes no problem with:
$items = Item::with('attributes')->paginate(15);
But I can't seem to get the relationship set correctly to retrieve the category name.
With a standard MySql query I'd use something like:
SELECT category_name FROM items
JOIN attributes on items.item_code = attributes.item_code
JOIN categories on attributes.pg3_id = categories.id
WHERE items.item_code = 40992264
How do I achieve this using eloquent?
Edit - My bad - Totally messed up the SQL. Updated to reflect the correct table names and include the second join
Update
My models currently look like this:
class Attributes extends Model
{
public function category(){
return $this->belongsTo(Category::class);
}
}
class Product extends Model
{
public function item()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Item::class);
}
}
class Category extends Model
{
public function attributes()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Attributes::class);
}
}
But this still isn't returning a result. I've tried using
$items = Item::with('attributes.category')->get();
as suggested, but this still throws an error. If I update the Product model to:
class Product extends Model
{
public function item()
{
return $this->belongsTo(Item::class);
}
public function category(){
return $this->belongsTo(Category::class);
}
}
I don't get an error, but the relationship returns null.

Answer 1

You can do
$items = Item::with('attributes.category')->get();
So you access the category relationship inside the attributes relationship.
For example:
foreach ($items as $item) {
foreach ($item->attributes as $attribute) {
echo $attribute->category->id; // Will print the category id.
}
}