Array to string conversion (SQL: insert into

Question

I'm trying to insert data from a Seeder in Laravel 5.6 and I'm having a problem with the field that is json type. I want this field ('stops') to be an array (for example of ten integers not repeated).

The table seeder (RoutesTableSeeder.php) is something like this:

<?php

 use \Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
 use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;
 use Faker\Factory as Faker;

 use App\Models\Route;

 class RoutesTableSeeder extends Seeder
 {
   /**
   * Run the database seeds.
   *
   * @return void
   */
   public function run()
   {
    //factory(Route::class, 20)->create();

    $faker = Faker::create();

    //$values= array();

    /*for($i=0; $i < 10; $i++) {
        $values []= $faker->unique()->randomDigit;
    }

    print_r(json_encode($values));*/

    foreach (range(1, 20) as $index)
    {
        $values = array();

        for($i=0; $i < 10; $i++) {
            $values []= $faker->unique()->randomDigit;
        }

        //print_r($values);

        DB::table('routes')->insert([
            'user_id' => $faker->numberBetween($min = 1, $max = 20),
            'name' => $faker->name,
            'description' => $faker->name,
            'route_photo' => $faker->image($dir = null, $width = 640, $height = 480, $category = null, $fullPath = true, $randomize = true, $word = null),
            'stops'=> [
                        //$values,
                        json_encode($values)
                        //implode(", ", $values)
            ],
        ]);
    }

  }
  }

I tried several ways to insert data. When I use json_encode($values) I have the following error:

Array to string conversion 
(SQL: insert into `routes` (`user_id`, `name`, `description`, `route_photo`, `stops`) 
values (19, Isaac 
  Feil, Holly Nolan, /tmp/bc8a3cf5e015d3afa96317485499e0ca.jpg, 
[8,6,0,7,3,1,5,2,4,9]))

This kind of value [8,6,0,7,3,1,5,2,4,9] is what I want to store in 'stops' field, for example, but I don't know what is going wrong....

Please, would you be so kind to help me? I'm desperate....

I post the model if it helps:

<?php

  namespace App\Models;

  use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

  class Route extends Model
    {
      protected $fillable = [
       'user_id',
       'name',
       'description',
       'route_photo',
       'stops'
 ];


   protected $casts = [
    'stops' => 'array'
  ];
 }

And the migration:

  public function up()
{
    Schema::create('routes', function (Blueprint $table) {
        $table->increments('id');
        //FK:users
        $table->integer('user_id')->unsigned();
        $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users')->onDelete('cascade')->onUpdate('cascade');
        //FK:users
        $table->string('name');
        $table->string('description')->nullable();
        $table->string('route_photo');
        $table->json('stops');
        $table->timestamps();
    });
 }

Thanks a lot!!

Answer 1

json_encode($values) returns a string, which you can use as the value of the stops column. There's no need to put [] around it, that creates an array, and you can't store an array directly into a column. Just leave out the brackets:

'stops' => json_encode($values)

However, storing arrays in database columns is generally a bad idea, it violates normalization principles. You should use a separate table with a row for each value.

Answer 2

Don't cast stops to array, First remove

protected $casts = [
    'stops' => 'array'
];

And use json_encode to make string

'stops'=> json_encode($values),