Top 10 Laravel Collection Methods You Have Never Used.

In this article series, we go a little deeper into parts of Laravel we all use, to uncover functions and features that we can use in ou...

Karan Datwani

Published on 28 April 2024 in Tips and tricks

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In this article series, we go a little deeper into parts of Laravel we all use, to uncover functions and features that we can use in our next projects... if only we knew about them!

Here are a few lesser-known collection methods that can be quite handy in various real-world scenarios:

1. macro(): This lets you add custom methods to Laravel collections that can be used on any collection instance:

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

Collection::macro('customMethod', function () {
    // Your custom method logic
});

$collection = collect([...]);
// use on any collection object
$result = $collection->customMethod();

2. concat(): Suppose you have two collections of users from different sources and want to combine them into a single collection. You can use concat for this purpose:

$usersFromDatabase = User::where(...)->get();
$usersFromApi = collect([...]);

$combinedUsers = $usersFromDatabase->concat($usersFromApi);

3. pad(): You have a collection of tasks, but you want to ensure that it always contains a minimum number of elements. You can use pad to add dummy tasks if necessary:

$tasks = collect([...]);

$paddedTasks = $tasks->pad(10, 'Dummy Task');

4. shuffle() & random(): Suppose you have a quiz application and want to shuffle the order of the questions. You can use shuffle for this purpose. Additionally, if you're going to select a question from the collection randomly, you can use random:

$questions = collect([...]);

$shuffledQuestions = $questions->shuffle();
$randomQuestion = $questions->random();

5. crossJoin(): Suppose you've two collections and you want to generate all possible combinations from them.

$collection = collect([1, 2]); 
$matrix = $collection->crossJoin(['a', 'b']); 
$matrix->all();
/*[
    [1, 'a'],
    [1, 'b'],
    [2, 'a'],
    [2, 'b'],
]*/

$collection = collect([1, 2]); 
$matrix = $collection->crossJoin(['a', 'b'], ['I', 'II']); 
$matrix->all();
/*[
    [1, 'a', 'I'],
    [1, 'a', 'II'],
    [1, 'b', 'I'],
    [1, 'b', 'II'],
    [2, 'a', 'I'],
    [2, 'a', 'II'],
    [2, 'b', 'I'],
    [2, 'b', 'II'],
] */

6. partition(): Imagine you have a collection of students, and you want to partition them into two groups based on their grades (pass or fail). partition makes this easy:

$students = collect([...]);

list($passingStudents, $failingStudents) = $students->partition(function ($student) {

    return $student->grade >= 60;

});

7. first() and firstWhere(): You have a collection of tasks, and you want to retrieve the first task or the first task that meets certain criteria. first and firstWhere come in handy:

$tasks = collect([...]);

$firstTask = $tasks->first();

$urgentTask = $tasks->firstWhere('priority', 'urgent');

8. keyBy(): You have a collection of users, and you want to index them by their unique IDs for quick access. keyBy is the solution:

$users = collect([...]);

$indexedUsers = $users->keyBy('id');

9. filter(): You have a collection of orders coming from API and you want to filter out the canceled orders. The filter method is perfect for this:

$orders = collect([...]);

$validOrders = $orders->filter(function ($order) {

    return $order->status !== 'canceled';

});

10. transform(): You have a collection of tasks, and you want to modify each task in some way. transform allows you to apply a callback to each item to replace it:

$tasks = collect([...]);

$tasks->transform(function ($task) {

    return $task->name . ' - ' . $task->priority;

});

That's all for now, folks! These methods offer ease & flexibility that can be useful when working with Laravel applications.

All the above have been previously shared on our Twitter, one by one. Follow us on Twitter; You'll ❤️ it. You can also check the first article of the series, which is on Top 5 Scheduler Functions you might not know about. Keep exploring, keep coding, and keep pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve.