Laravel where, orWhereHas and whereNotIn - sql

Question

Hello great people of SO!
I hope you all have a good day and have a good health
Note: I'm not good at SQL
Sorry for bad english, but I will try my best to explain my issue
I'm using Laravel v8.x for my app, and after setting up model relationships, events, queues, etc, now I'm working for SQL
ATM, I have 2 Models,
User
Post
Relationships:
User hasMany Post
User belongsToMany User (Block)
User belongsToMany User (Follow)
Post belongsTo User
Database:
5 record for User
2 record for Block
3 records for Post
Table: (Using faker)
users
[
{ id: 1, name: 'Jonathan Beatrice', username: 'kiana.fay', ... },
{ id: 2, name: 'Lacey Kirlin', username: 'kenna.turner', ... },
{ id: 3, name: 'Alexander Schiller', username: 'cassandra95', ... },
{ id: 4, name: 'Daniel Wickozky', username: 'nkoepp', ... },
{ id: 5, name: 'Maymie Lehner', username: 'frami.felton', ... }
]
block
[
{ id: 1, by_id: 1, to_id: 2 }, // User #1 block user #2
{ id: 2, by_id: 4, to_id: 1 } // User #4 block user #1
]
posts
[
{ id: 1, user_id: 2, body: 'Test post', ... },
{ id: 2, user_id: 5, body: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ...', ... },
{ id: 3, user_id: 4, body: 'ABCD festival soon! ...', ... },
]
Everything works fine and smooth
Now that I want to implement search system, I have a problem, since I'm not good with SQL
Here's my code
SearchController.php
use ...;
use ...;
...
public function posts(Request $request)
{
// For testing purpose
$user = User::with(['userBlocks', 'blocksUser'])->find(1);
// Get all id of user that $user block
// return [2]
$user_blocks = $user->userBlocks->pluck('pivot')->pluck('to_id')->toArray();
// Get all id of user that block $user
// return [4]
$blocks_user = $user->blocksUser->pluck('pivot')->pluck('by_id')->toArray();
// Merge all ids above (must be unique())
// return [2, 4]
$blocks = array_merge($user_blocks, $blocks_user);
// .../search?q=xxx
$query = $request->query('q');
$sql = Post::query();
// Search for posts that has `posts`.`body` LIKE ? ($query)
$sql->where('body', 'LIKE', "%$query%");
// This is where I got confused
$sql->orWhereHas('user', function ($post_user) use ($blocks, $query) {
$post_user
->whereNotIn('id', $blocks) // Exclude posts that has user and their id not in (x, x, x, x, ... ; $block variable above)
->where('name', 'LIKE', "%$query%") // Find user that has name LIKE ? ($query)
->orWhere('username', 'LIKE', "%$query%"); // or Find user that has username LIKE ? ($query)
});
$sql->orderBy('created_at', 'DESC');
$sql->with(['user']);
$posts = $sql->simplePaginate(10, ['*'], 'p');
return $posts;
}
I run the code, .../search?q=e
Note:
All users has alphabet E in their names
And also all posts has alphabet E in their body
We (as User #1), block User #2, and User #4, block us (User #1)
Result: Controller returned all posts
This is the query when I use DB::enableQueryLog() and DB::getQueryLog()
SELECT
*
FROM
`posts`
WHERE `body` LIKE ?
AND EXISTS
(SELECT
*
FROM
`users`
WHERE `posts`.`user_id` = `users`.`id`
AND (
`id` NOT IN (?)
AND `username` LIKE ?
OR `name` LIKE ?
))
ORDER BY `created_at` ASC
LIMIT 11 OFFSET 0
Goal: Search all posts that has body LIKE ?, OR posts that has user; username LIKE ? or name LIKE ? (But also exclude the user we block and the user that block us
Thanks in advance
If there's any unclear explanation, I will edit it A.S.A.P

Answer 1

If I run on my recent laravel install, with my proposed change for one of your issues, version 7.19.1, I get this query:
SELECT
*
FROM
`posts`
WHERE `body` LIKE ?
OR EXISTS <- line of interest
(SELECT
*
FROM
`users`
WHERE `posts`.`user_id` = `users`.`id`
AND (
`id` NOT IN (?)
AND (`username` LIKE ?
OR `name` LIKE ?) <- extra brackets ive added
))
ORDER BY `created_at` ASC
LIMIT 11 OFFSET 0
Have a look at the line of interest, and compare it with the query your version of laravel is running. The AND EXISTS line is being incorrectly generated by laravel. OrWhereHas isnt behaving correctly in your version, I can't find the release number to see where it was fixed.
Id recommend upgrading to latest if possible, but thats not always an option. I've had a dig around, and it looks like the user in this question here encountered a similar problem:
WhereHas() / orWhereHas not constraining the query as expected
You can try moving your $sql->with(['user']); to before you OrWhereHas clause. I'm not sure if that will change it to OR, but its worth a try.
Second thing, I've added whereNested to your OR clause to ensure the precedence is correct, which adds the extra brackets in the query above, as in you dont want:
(`id` NOT IN (1, 2, 3)
AND `name` LIKE % test %)
OR `username` LIKE % test %
Since then it would include your blocked posts in the exists clause.
So final changes look like this, which I think fufills your description:
$sql->with(['user']); //deleted from original position and move here
$sql->where('body', 'LIKE', "%$query%")->whereNotIn('id', $blocks); //additional line
$sql->orWhereHas('ambience', function ($post_user) use ($blocks, $query) {
$post_user
->whereNotIn('id', $blocks);
$post_user->whereNested(function($post_user) use ($query) { //new bit
$post_user->where('name', 'LIKE', "%$query%")
->orWhere('username', 'LIKE', "%$query%");
});
});