Laravel: Model function to check if relationship exists

Question

I have two models Customer, Contact with the following relationship in the Customer model:

public function latestContact () {
    return $this->hasOne(Contact::class)->latest();
}

I already found out here that the optional helper is a possible to way check if the relationship exists when displaying the data. Otherwise I would receive a "Trying to get property of non-object" error.

optional($customer->latestContact)->address

Now I am wondering if there is a way to directly check this inside the model function. I would prefer to only call

$customer->latestContact->address

or something like

$customer->getLatestContactAdress

and return false (or no result) if the relationship does not exists.

Thank you in advance.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23910553/laravel-check-if-related-model-existsfollow above url — Kuldeep Mishra, Apr 11 '18 at 06:45
If your relationship is hasOne why you want to call latest() — afsal c, Apr 11 '18 at 07:15
@afsalc The actual relationsship is hasMany(). With the latestContact function, I call only the latest Contact for a Customer. — maxiw46, Apr 11 '18 at 08:31

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 11 '18 at 06:53

1

You could define an accessor or a function within your parent model.

Something like this in your Customer model:

public function getLatestContactAddress()
{
    return optional($this->latestContact)->address;
}

And call it like this:

$customer->getLatestContactAddress();

answered Apr 11 '18 at 06:53

DevK

9,597
2
26
48

Thank you. I think this is what I've been looking for. I'll try it tonight. – maxiw46 Apr 11 '18 at 12:11

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 11 '18 at 08:43

0

Try using eager loading

$customer = Customer::with('latestContact')->get();

Let me know if not works

answered Apr 11 '18 at 08:43

afsal c

612
4
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Laravel: Model function to check if relationship exists

2 Answers2