Check if the user_id is exist inside query - php

Question

I've tried to query using laravel eloquent where user is following a specific brand.
The problem: How to query listing of brand and let me know if current login user is following the brand?
got 3 tables:
Brand:
Id | name | logo
User:
Id | name | email | password
Followers:
brand_id | user_id
Now i tried to query all brand and inside of the collection i want to add
is_follow = 1 or is_follow = 0
if the user already follow or 0 if not exists.
I'm using fractal so maybe it can be easier to query. but i don't really get it how to query it out with check the user_id first.
Thanks
*Update
I manage to solve it. But i think its a bad practice.
$user_id = Request::get('user_id');
foreach($brands->followers as $value){
$array[] = $value->user_id;
}
if(in_array($user_id, $array)){
$is_follow = 1;
}

Answer 1

You can check if the authenticated User follows a specific Brand with:
$user = Auth::user();
$exists = $user->brands->contains($brand_id);
You can also do it with a raw query which will be better in terms of performance:
$exists = DB::table('user_brand')
->whereBrandId($brand_id)
->whereUserId(Auth::user()->id)
->count() > 0;