Get all fields from db model in Laravel

Question

After creating model, when I try to get his attributes, i get only fields in database that are filled.

    ----------------------------------------------
DB: | id | shopID | name | bottleID | capacity |
    ----------------------------------------------
    | 1  | 8      | Cola |  3       |          |
    ----------------------------------------------

In this case I need capacity attribute too, as empty string

public function getDrinkData(Request $request)
{
    $drink = Drink::where('shopId', $request->session()->get('shopId'))->first();

    if($drink) {
        $drink = $drink->attributesToArray();
    }
    else {
        $drink = Drink::firstOrNew(['shopId' => $request->session()->get('shopId')]);
        $drink = $drink->attributesToArray(); // i want to get even empty fields
    }
    return view('shop.drink')->(['drink' => $drink])
}

But for later usage (in view) I need to have all attributes, including empty ones. I know that this code works as it should, but I don't know how to change it to detect all attributes.

Answer 1

The model attributes are populated by reading the data from the database. When using firstOrNew() and a record doesn't exist, it makes a new instance of the model object without reading from the database, so the only attributes it has will be the ones manually assigned. Additionally, since there is no record in the database yet, you can't just re-read the database to get the missing data.

In this case, you can use Schema::getColumnListing($tableName) to get an array of all the columns in the table. With that information, you can create a base array that has all the column names as keys, and null for all the values, and then merge in the values of your Drink object.

public function getDrinkData(Request $request)
{
    // firstOrNew will query using attributes, so no need for two queries
    $drink = Drink::firstOrNew(['shopId' => $request->session()->get('shopId')]);

    // if an existing record was found
    if($drink->exists) {
        $drink = $drink->attributesToArray();
    }
    // otherwise a new model instance was instantiated
    else {
        // get the column names for the table
        $columns = Schema::getColumnListing($drink->getTable());
        // create array where column names are keys, and values are null
        $columns = array_fill_keys($columns, null);

        // merge the populated values into the base array
        $drink = array_merge($columns, $drink->attributesToArray());
    }

    return view('shop.drink')->(['drink' => $drink])
}

---

If you were using firstOrCreate(), then a new record is created when one doesn't exist. Since there a record in the database now, you could simply re-read the record from the database to populated all of the model attributes. For example:

public function getDrinkData(Request $request)
{
    $drink = Drink::firstOrCreate(['shopId' => $request->session()->get('shopId')]);

    // If it was just created, refresh the model to get all the attributes.
    if ($drink->wasRecentlyCreated) {
        $drink = $drink->fresh();
    }

    return view('shop.drink')->(['drink' => $drink->attributesToArray()])
}

Answer 2

What if you were to explicitly declare all the fields you want back.

An example of something I do that is a bit more basic as I'm not using where clauses and just getting all from Request object. I still think this could be helpful to someone out there.

public function getDrinkData(Request $request)
{
    // This will only give back the columns/attributes that have data.
    // NULL values will be omitted.
    //$drink = $request->all();

    // However by declaring all the attributes I want I can get back 
    // columns even if the value is null. Additional filtering can be 
    // added on if you still want/need to massage the data.
    $drink = $request->all([
        'id',
        'shopID',
        'name',
        'bottleID',
        'capacity'
    ]);

    //...

    return view('shop.drink')->(['drink' => $drink])
}