How to manually create a new empty Eloquent Collection in Laravel 4 - php

Question

How do we create a new Eloquent Collection in Laravel 4, without using Query Builder?
There is a newCollection() method which can be overridden by that doesn't really do job because that is only being used when we are querying a set result.
I was thinking of building an empty Collection, then fill it with Eloquent objects. The reason I'm not using array is because I like Eloquent Collections methods such as contains.
If there are other alternatives, I would love to hear them out.

Answer 1

It's not really Eloquent, to add an Eloquent model to your collection you have some options:
In Laravel 5 you can benefit from a helper
$c = collect(new Post);
or
$c = collect();
$c->add(new Post);
OLD Laravel 4 ANSWER
$c = new \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection;
And then you can
$c->add(new Post);
Or you could use make:
$c = Collection::make(new Post);

Answer 2

As of Laravel 5. I use the global function collect()
$collection = collect([]); // initialize an empty array [] inside to start empty collection
this syntax is very clean and you can also add offsets if you don't want the numeric index, like so:
$collection->offsetSet('foo', $foo_data); // similar to add function but with
$collection->offsetSet('bar', $bar_data); // an assigned index

Answer 3

I've actually found that using newCollection() is more future proof....
Example:
$collection = (new Post)->newCollection();
That way, if you decide to create your own collection class for your model (like I have done several times) at a later stage, it's much easier to refactor your code, as you just override the newCollection() function in your model

Answer 4

Laravel >= 5.5
This may not be related to the original question, but since it's one of the first link in google search, i find this helpful for those like me, who are looking for how to create empty collection.
If you want to manually create a new empty collection, you can use the collect helper method like this:
$new_empty_collection = collect();
You can find this helper in Illuminate\Support\helpers.php
snippet:
if (! function_exists('collect')) {
/**
* Create a collection from the given value.
*
* #param mixed $value
* #return \Illuminate\Support\Collection
*/
function collect($value = null)
{
return new Collection($value);
}
}

Answer 5

Just to add on to the accepted answer, you can also create an alias in config/app.php
'aliases' => array(
...
'Collection' => Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection::class,
Then you simply need to do
$c = new Collection;

Answer 6

In Laravel 5 and Laravel 6 you can resolve the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection class out of the service container and then add models into it.
$eloquentCollection = resolve(Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection::class);
// or app(Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection::class). Whatever you prefer, app() and resolve() do the same thing.
$eloquentCollection->push(User::first());
For more information about understanding resolving objects out of the service container in laravel take a look here:
https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/container#resolving

Answer 7

I am using this way :
$coll = new Collection();
$coll->name = 'name';
$coll->value = 'value';
$coll->description = 'description';
and using it as normal Collection
dd($coll->name);

Answer 8

It is better to use the Injection Pattern and after $this->collection->make([]) than new Collection
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
...
// Inside of a clase.
...
public function __construct(Collection $collection){
$this->collection = $collection;
}
public function getResults(){
...
$results = $this->collection->make([]);
...
}

Answer 9

What worked for me was to name the use namespace and instantiate it directly:
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection as EloquentCollection;
# Usage
$this->latest_posts = new EloquentCollection();
Allowed me to merge two data subsets of eloquent collection results, this maintains the relationships - a regular collection (collect()) loses relationship and probably some more metadata.
$limit = 5;
$this->latest_posts = new EloquentCollection();
$pinned_posts = PinnedPostReference::where('category', $category)->get();
if($pinned_posts->count() > 0) {
foreach($pinned_posts as $ppost) {
$this->latest_posts->push($ppost->post);
}
}
# Another Eloquent result set ($regular_posts)
foreach($regular_posts as $regular_post) {
$this->latest_posts->push($regular_post);
}