Laravel Relationships - access input from other table - php

Question

I cant get this working. This should be easy, but I cant figure out how to access a users gamer tag from different table using relationships.
Here is my User.php Model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'gamertag', 'slug', 'email', 'password',
];
/**
* The attributes that should be hidden for arrays.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = [
'password',
];
// A user has many messages (Chat)
public function chat () {
return $this->hasMany('App\Chat');
}
}
Here is my Chat.php Model:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Chat extends Model {
protected $table = "chat";
/**
* The attributes that are mass assignable.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $fillable = [
'message', 'user_id'
];
// A Chat (or message) belong to a user
public function user() {
return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
}
}
And this is how I;m retrieving the messages:
class HomeController extends Controller {
public function index () {
$messages = Chat::orderBy('created_at', 'desc')->get();
return view('layouts.index', compact('messages'));
}
}
Why Im I having trouble getting the gamer tag to display?
#foreach($messages as $message)
<a class="author">{{ $message->user->gamertag }}</a>
#endforeach
/***** Edit***/
This works:
{{ dd($message->user->gamertag) }}
// This does NOT
{{ $message->user->gamertag }}

Answer 1

Try to use eager loading:
$messages = Chat::orderBy('created_at', 'desc')->with('user')->get();

Answer 2

I figured it out! Everything was working here, its just in my chat table, I had inserted a message with no identified user, so user_id = 0, and it was throwing that error off. Silly mistake.