Laravel nested join queries with query builder - php

Question

This is a search function that returns each member with their most recent year registered.
I got it working with a DB::raw() call. But can't get it working with the query builder.
Working Code:
$query = DB::table('membership as m');
$query->join(
DB::raw(
'(SELECT my.*
FROM membership_years my
INNER JOIN (
SELECT member_id,MAX(membership_year) AS max_my
FROM membership_years
GROUP BY member_id
) my2
ON my.member_id = my2.member_id
AND my.membership_year = my2.max_my
) my'
)
,'m.id','=','my.member_id');
My attempt on query builder code:
$query = DB::table('membership as m');
$query->join('membership_years as my',
function($j1){
$j1->join('membership_years as my2',
function($j2){
$j2->where('my.membership_year','=','MAX(my2.membership_year)')
->on('my.member_id','=','my2.member_id');
}
)->on('m.id','=','my.member_id');
}
);
The resulting error is:
Call to undefined method Illuminate\Database\Query\JoinClause::join()
I'm not sure if this is because the $j2 doesn't have access to the join method anymore?
Raw MySQL query:
SELECT my.membership_year,m.*
FROM membership AS m
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT my1.*
FROM membership_years my1
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT member_id,MAX(membership_year) AS max_my
FROM membership_years
GROUP BY member_id
) my2
ON my1.member_id = my2.member_id
AND my1.membership_year = my2.max_my
) my
ON m.id = my.member_id
ORDER BY m.id ASC

Answer 1

Way 1. You can write part of the query with builder:
$query = DB::table('membership as m')
->select('my.membership_year', 'm.*')
->join(DB::raw('(
SELECT my1.*
FROM membership_years my1
INNER JOIN (
SELECT member_id, MAX(membership_year) AS max_my
FROM membership_years
GROUP BY member_id
) my2
ON my1.member_id = my2.member_id
AND my1.membership_year = my2.max_my
) my'),
'm.id', '=', 'my.member_id')
->orderBy('m.id');
Way 2. Also you can write subqueries and use toSql() method:
$sub1 = DB::table('membership_years')
->select('member_id', DB::raw('MAX(membership_year) AS max_my'))
->groupBy('member_id');
$sub2 = DB::table('membership_years as my1')
->select('my1.*')
->join(DB::raw('(' . $sub1->toSql() . ') my2'),
function ($join) {
$join
->on('my1.member_id', '=', 'my2.member_id')
->on('my1.membership_year', '=', 'my2.max_my');
});
$query = DB::table('membership as m')
->select('my.membership_year', 'm.*')
->join(DB::raw('(' . $sub2->toSql() . ') my'), 'm.id', '=', 'my.member_id')
->orderBy('m.id');