Laravel ORM select query function load() on null - php

Question

Here's my function to load submissions created by a user.
public function viewSubs()
{
$user = User::find(Input::get('id'));
$submissions = Submission::find($user)->sortByDesc('created_at');
$submissions->load('user')->load('votes')->load('suggestions.votes');
return view('submissions.index' , compact('submissions'));
}
This returns with an error
Call to a member function load() on null
when there are no records on the submission.
How to handle if there are no submission on the DB?

Answer 1

Just check if its null first using an if statement:
public function viewSubs()
{
$user = User::find(Input::get('id'));
if ($submissions = Submission::find($user)->sortByDesc('created_at')) {
$submissions->load('user')->load('votes')->load('suggestions.votes');
}
return view('submissions.index' , compact('submissions'));
}
Also, depending on your DB structure I'm pretty sure you can cut out a lot of the code by utilising your models' relationships by doing something like this:
$user = User::find(Input::get('id'))
->with(['submissions' => function($query) {
$query->orderBy('created_at', 'asc');
}, 'submissions.votes', 'submissions.suggestions.votes']);
Then pass the $user variable to the view, or:
$submissions = Submission::with('user', 'votes', 'suggestions.votes')
->where('user_id', Input::get('id'))
->sortByDesc('created_at')
->first();
Not entirely sure the code will work perfectly, but I'm sure you can tweak it. The point is your code can be a lot shorter and still/or more readable by using relationships you've already set up.