Laravel getting collection ordered by relationship table - php

Question

I have 2 tables, one is magazine and the other is issues. I have set up their relationship like this:
Magazine model:
public function issues()
{
return $this->hasMany('App\Issue')->orderBy('date', 'desc');
}
Issue model:
public function magazine()
{
return $this->belongsTo('App\Magazine');
}
I have a query where I get magazines ordered by a column and then in foreach loop I am getting the first issue of each magazine and storing it in array:
$magazines = Magazine::with('issues')->orderBy('order')->get();
foreach ($magazines as $magazine)
{
$issues[] = $magazine->issues()->first();
$images[] = $magazine->issues()->first()->image;
}
But, I would like to make a collection instead of an array. I am not sure how can I do that kind of query or is there a way to somehow store values to a collection in a foreach loop?

Answer 1

There are several ways of doing this.
You can turn an array into a collection by doing the following.
$issuesCollection = collect($issues);
$imagesCollection = collect($images);
You could also initialize an empty collection and then use the push() method to append items to it. Check the documentation

Answer 2

Just use the map function:
$magazines = Magazine::with('issues')->orderBy('order')->get();
$firstIssues = $magazines->map(function($magazine) {
return $magazine->issues->first();
});
$images = $firstIssues->map(function($issue) {
return $issue->image;
});
The map method iterates through the collection and passes each value
to the given callback. The callback is free to modify the item and
return it, thus forming a new collection of modified items