cdruc

It happens very often that we want to apply certain eloquent query conditions based on what a request sends in. Sometimes it’s a “search by name” thing, other times we just need to filter the records based on a status column.

Usually it looks like this:

public function index(Request $request) 
{
    $posts = Post::newQuery();

    if ($request->term) {
        $posts->where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$request->term}%");
    }

    if ($request->status) {
        $posts->where('status', $request->status);
    }

    return view('posts.index', ['posts' => $posts->paginate()])
}

I recently discovered there’s an alternative to using conditionals. The “when” method executes a callback (second parameter) when the first parameter evaluates to true.

public function index(Request $request) 
{
    $posts = Post::when($request->term, function($q, $term) {
        $q->where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$term}%");
    })->when($request->status, function($q, $status) {
        $q->where('status', $status);
    });

    return view('posts.index', ['posts' => $posts->paginate()])
}

It’s not all that better if you ask me. Yes, it hides the conditionals, but it also makes the code harder to read. Especially if you have more conditions to add.

I’d use this “when” approach for single conditions only.

public function index(Request $request) 
{
    $posts = Post::when($request->term, function($q, $term) {
        $q->where('name', 'LIKE', "%{$term}%");
    });

    return view('posts.index', ['posts' => $posts->paginate()])
}