Get Specific Columns Using “With()” Function in Laravel Eloquent

Question

Well I found the solution. It can be done one by passing a closure function in with() as second index of array like

Post::query()
    ->with(array('user' => function($query) {
        $query->select('id','username');
    }))
    ->get();

It will only select id and username from other table. I hope this will help others.

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Remember that the primary key (id in this case) needs to be the first param in the $query->select() to actually retrieve the necessary results.*

You can do it like this since Laravel 5.5:

Post::with('user:id,username')->get();

Care for the id field and foreign keys as stated in the docs:

When using this feature, you should always include the id column and any relevant foreign key columns in the list of columns you wish to retrieve.

For example, if the user belongs to a team and has a team_id as a foreign key column, then $post->user->team is empty if you don't specifiy team_id

Post::with('user:id,username,team_id')->get();

Also, if the user belongs to the post (i.e. there is a column post_id in the users table), then you need to specify it like this:

Post::with('user:id,username,post_id')->get();

Otherwise $post->user will be empty.

For loading models with specific column, though not eager loading, you could:

In your Post model

public function user()
{
    return $this->belongsTo('User')->select(['id', 'username']);
}

Original credit goes to Laravel Eager Loading - Load only specific columns

When going the other way (hasMany):

User::with(array('post'=>function($query){
    $query->select('id','user_id');
}))->get();

Don't forget to include the foreign key (assuming it is user_id in this example) to resolve the relationship, otherwise you'll get zero results for your relation.

In Laravel 5.7 you can call specific field like this

$users = App\Book::with('author:id,name')->get();

It is important to add foreign_key field in the selection.