laravel gives me object when it shouldn't - php

Question

So I have the following scope on an Investor Model:
public function scopeCountUsersInRegionForCompany(Builder $query, $companyName, $regionCode)
{
return $query->select('users.*')
->join('user_profile', 'user_profile.user_id', '=', 'users.id')
->join('investments', 'users.id', '=', 'investments.user_id')
->join('offerings', 'investments.offering_id', '=', 'offerings.id')
->join('companies', 'offerings.company_id', '=', 'companies.id')
->where('companies.slug', '=', $companyName)
->where('user_profile.region', '=', $regionCode)
->count();
}
Its used in the following context:
public function regionCountForCompany($slug)
{
$regions = [];
$totalUsersForCompany = Investor::countUsersForCompany($slug);
if ($totalUsersForCompany === 0) {
return [];
}
foreach ($this->getAllRegions() as $regionCode => $regionName) {
$regions[$regionName] = (Investor::countUsersInRegionForCompany($slug, $regionCode) / Investor::countUsersForCompany($slug)) * 100;
}
if (max($regions) > 0) {
return $regions;
} else {
return [];
}
}
Note the for each loop:
foreach ($this->getAllRegions() as $regionCode => $regionName) {
$regions[$regionName] = (Investor::countUsersInRegionForCompany($slug, $regionCode) / Investor::countUsersForCompany($slug)) * 100;
}
the following call:
Investor::countUsersInRegionForCompany($slug, $regionCode)
will return 1 and then every other time after that it returns: Object of class Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder could not be converted to int If I do: var_dump(is_object(Investor::countUsersInRegionForCompany($slug, $regionCode))) Its false once, then true for every other time its called.
This is the only scope that causes this issue. How ever if I do a var dump inside the scope to get the variable $query instead of returning it like you see me doing, it comes back as an int.
If I hit the end point in the browser that calls this particular set of code, all of this works, no errors about objects or any of that. The test is as follows:
public function it_should_return_region_count_for_investors() {
$this->createInvestment();
$investor = factory(User::class)->create([
'role_id' => 4
]);
$response = $this->actingAs($investor)
->call('GET', 'api/v1/investors-signedup-by-jurisdiction/');
$this->assertNotEmpty(json_decode($response->getContent()));
}
The response comes back as: Object of class Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder could not be converted to int (It actually renders a html laravel error page with this message)
What is going on?

Answer 1

It's because of a little bit stupid check of Laravel. When it calls scope it checks what the function must return and add fallback for chaining :
return call_user_func_array([$this->model, $scope], $parameters) ?: $this;
so when your function returns 1 - ternary operator equals to true and result returns, when it return 0 - ternary operator fails, and you get this instead.
I advice you to not return result from scope. It's done to modify query, not to return results. Put count() outside the scope like
Investor::usersInRegionForCompany($slug, $regionCode)->count()