Count Array where Column Value Equals Given - php

Question

I have a controller where an array of checkbox values are passed on to the controller and then sent on to do a variety of tasks. My problem is focused on getting a count of the arrays' shipment's customer's billing method, but I'm not entirely sure how I would get those values since I'm posting an array and I want a count.
Here's my controller:
public function sendNow(Request $request)
{
$now = Carbon::now();
$sendNowShipment = array();
$method = array();
$sendNowShipment = request('send');
foreach($sendNowShipment as $SNS){
$shipment = Shipment::findOrFail($SNS);
if($shipment->billtoAccount->billingMethods->label == "Mail"){
$timestamp = Carbon::now()->timestamp;
$shipment_details = $shipment->shipment_details;
$path = 'temp/freightbill_'.$shipment->pro_number.'-'.$timestamp.'.pdf';
$sessionPath[] = $path;
$pdf = PDF::loadView('shipments.pdf', compact('shipment', 'shipment_details'))
->save($path);
}elseif($shipment->billtoAccount->billingMethods->label == "Email"){
$billToAccount = $shipment->billtoAccount;
$billToAccountUsers = $billToAccount->users;
if ($billToAccount->primary_email){
$billToEmail[] = $billToAccount->primary_email;
}
if ($billToAccountUsers->count() > 0){
foreach ($billToAccountUsers as $billToAccountUser){
$billToEmail[] = $billToAccountUser->email;
}
}
foreach ($billToEmail as $bte){
Mail::to($bte)->send(new newBillToShipment($shipment));
}
}
}
if(count($shipment->billtoAccount->billingMethods->label == "Mail") > 0){// count where shipments->customers->billingMethods = Mail) > 0
$pdf = new PDFMerger();
// Add 2 PDFs to the final PDF
foreach($sessionPath as $sp){
$pdf->addPDF($sp, 'all');
}
// Merge the files and retrieve its PDF binary content
$timestamp = Carbon::now()->timestamp;
$binaryContent = $pdf->merge('download', $timestamp."-printBatch.pdf");
// Return binary content as response
//return response($binaryContent)
// ->header('Content-type' , 'application/pdf');
return back();
//dd($sendNowShipment,$sendMethod);
}
}
If you look at this line (a little past the middle):
if(count($shipment->billtoAccount->billingMethods->label == "Mail") > 0){
// count where shipments->customers->billingMethods = Mail) > 0
You'll see that I'm going through a multitude of relationships just to get the value of "Mail" that I am looking for.
So I'm wondering if this should be a DB:: query through laravel, but I'm not sure how I would perform the query using the given checkbox array I have being POSTed to this controller.