Why is passing of second variable on href much flexible in Laravel? - php

Question

I am using Laravel Framework 4.1.30.
My Original Problem was...
I got a working route that when I type "localhost/user/alvin" it works but when I click a drop-down bar, it does not work.
drop-down bar from template was: (li tag removed)
{{ Auth::user()->username }}
route is:
Route::get('/user/{username}', array(
'as' => 'profile-user',
'uses' => 'ProfileController#user'));
View of URL when I click the dropdown bar is:
"localhost/user/%7Busername%7D"
I got 3 working answers for this from other communities.
First was a simple:
{{ Auth::user()->username }}
Second was:
{{ Auth::user()->username }}
Last was:
<a href="{{ URL::route('profile-user',['username'=>Auth::user()->username]) }}">
{{ Auth::user()->username}}</a>
Originally I thought the simplest (First Solution) form would be the wisest choice but as per most developer they choose the Third answer because it allows some flexibility to some extent.
I want to implement a good Quality Assured code as much as possible.
My question... Why would the 3rd solution be much more flexible compared to a much simpler code?

Answer 1

You can even use a more flexible, shorter modification of the third one:
<a href="{{ route('profile-user', Auth::user()->username) }}">
When you are using named routes, you do not put actual URLs, nor controller method names into your Views. You only provide a route name to your Views, and all other things are defined in your routes, and can be changed, if needed, without making breaking anything else. It would be a waste not to use this feature.
It is also more flexible, by not specifying the parameter name, so it can be changed in the routes too, without breaking the Views. This way they will be just taken in the order they were inputted. They are also read by a controller method in the order, i.e. public function index($parameter1, $parameter2) not by an associative array.
The route() is an alias to URL::route().