Simple SQL to Eloquent Query (Laravel) - sql

Question

I have two tables: users (Users) and groups (Groups).
Users
-----------------
id | username | group
1 | Bob | 2
Groups
-----------------
id | name
1 | firstgroup
2 | secondgroup
I would like to display: users.ID, users.username, group.name (1, Bob, secondgroup)
An SQL statement like so would work:
SELECT Users.id, Users.username, Groups.name
FROM Users
INNER JOIN
Groups ON Groups.id = Users.group
However, I'm struggling to write this in Eloquent, since there is no "FROM". At the moment I'm going for something along the lines of the below, using JOINS (http://laravel.com/docs/queries#joins)
$users = Users::select('id','username', 'Groups.name')->joins('Groups.id', '=', 'id')->get();
Now this isn't working - I think the joins has to come before the select but I just can't work it out :(

Answer 1

I think you're confusing a few things here...
You're mixing Eloquent with the lower-level DB::table('foo')->select() syntax. When you want to use Eloquent I suggest you take a look at the docs about relationships in Eloquent.
You should define your models like so:
class User extends Eloquent {
public function group()
{
return $this->belongsTo('Group', 'group');
// second parameter is necessary because you didnt
// name the column "group_id" but simply "group"
}
}
class Group extends Eloquent {
public function users()
{
return $this->hasMany('User', 'group');
}
}
This sets up all the joins you might be needing later. You can then simply use User::with('group')->all(); and have the query built and run for you.

Answer 2

Database: Query Builder(DB) is not a Eloquent(ORM):
Database query builder you have to inform the table names and the fields, like it says on in your related link of laravel docs: "...provides a convenient, fluent interface to creating and running database queries." like these query below:
$users = DB::table('users')
->join('contacts', 'users.id', '=', 'contacts.user_id')
->join('orders', 'users.id', '=', 'orders.user_id')
->select('users.*', 'contacts.phone', 'orders.price')
->get();
Eloquent is a ORM - Object related Mapping, it means that your class User is related to the table users (look at you files Migrations) and this class extends the Model Class, thus you can access the methods like these bellow:
class User extends Models
{
public static function usersWithGroups(){
return User::select('id', 'name', 'email')->with('groups')->get();
}
}
Observe that method is into the class User, so you can access that in a static way "User::", using Eloquent you'll have many hidden static methods that will improve you time codding, because you are inheriting de Model methods, to more details visit the Eloquent Docs at: Eloquent Docs