How to merge Laravel objects in controller

Question

I have a controller where I want to combine data from multiple tables with parallel structures. What I want to end up with in the end is one object I can return from the controller so I can parse it in Backbone.

I want to do something like this:

public function index()
{
    $mc = MainContact::where('verified', '=', '1')->get();
    $sm = SendMessage::where('verified', '=', '1')->get();

    $obj = (object) array_merge((array) $mc, (array) $sm);
    return $obj;
}

I'm told by another post on StackOverflow that this works in PHP 5.3+. However, this returns the following error in Laravel:

UnexpectedValueException: The Response content must be a string or object implementing
 __toString(), "object" given.

How do I implement this method in Laravel? Both $mc and sm return valid objects in Laravel.

I'm using the Laravel 4 alpha right now. I'm going to upgrade to the beta when it comes out today or Monday or whenever it comes out. — sehummel, Jan 11 '13 at 17:54
I tried creating a separate class with a blank `__toString()` method in it but don't know where to store it in Laravel 4. — sehummel, Jan 11 '13 at 18:07

score 52 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 13:09

52

Nowadays you can use

$new_collection = $collection->merge($other_collection).

This works in Laravel 4 and seems to handle both arrays and collections.

answered Oct 24 '13 at 13:09

trm42

2,536
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1

In my scenario, it eats up some rows after the collection merge. – Ali Gajani Mar 02 '15 at 17:46
Is your collection using strings as keys? Collection::merge uses PHP's array_merge, which overwrites string keys but not integer keys. If that's a problem, you can always subclass Laravel Collection to override the implementation. – trm42 Mar 03 '15 at 08:12
In my case, only the `$other_collection` remains and the `$collection` disappears. Why??? – Pathros Jun 06 '16 at 18:09
1

@AliGajani, yes it does. If a string key in the given items matches a string key in the original collection, the given items's value will overwrite the value in the original collection. But If the given items's keys are numeric, the values will be appended to the end of the collection. Check it out here: https://laravel.com/docs/5.7/collections#method-merge – Allan Mwesigwa Oct 04 '18 at 19:46

score 36 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 11 '13 at 21:00

36

What you can do here is merge the arrays of the two query result and then use the Response with json output like shown below.

$array = array_merge($mc->toArray(), $sm->toArray());
return Response::json($array);

answered Jan 11 '13 at 21:00

Raftalks

2,017
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score 10 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 06:39

10

We can use collection as below

$admins = User::where('type', '=', 'admin')->get();

$authors = User::where('type', '=', 'author')->get();

$admin_author_collection = $admins->merge($authors);

Also, Please refer the various collection methods to below link

http://laravel.com/api/4.2/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Collection.html

answered Oct 17 '14 at 06:39

Ramesh Kotkar

747
9
11

This is what I wanted.Thanks – Cholowao Feb 27 '18 at 14:48

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 08 '14 at 09:39

3

Route::get('test', function(){
    $rank = Rank::get();
    $policy = Policy::get();
    $obj = (object)array_merge_recursive((array)$rank , (array)$policy);
    var_dump($obj);
});

This is working for me. Instead of array_merge use array_merge_recursive().

edited Dec 08 '14 at 09:39

Jono20201

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answered Feb 02 '14 at 17:59

Hassan Jamal

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 01 '23 at 08:54

0

I use concat and works for me. like this:

$role1 = User::where('role', '=', 'role1')->get();
$role2 = User::where('role', '=', 'role2')->get();
$allRoles = $role1->concat($role2);

answered May 01 '23 at 08:54

Zahra Badri

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score -4 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 09 '19 at 10:26

-4

You could simply use array_merge(firstObject,secondObject) function.

$obj = array_merge($mc, $sm);
return $obj;

answered Sep 09 '19 at 10:26

rashedcs

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How to merge Laravel objects in controller

6 Answers6

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