Laravel relationsToArray(); Get All the Model’s Relations

Moe Dayraki
2 min readSep 12, 2023

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In Laravel’s Eloquent ORM, the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model class provides a powerful set of methods to interact with the database. One such method is relationsToArray(), which allows you to retrieve the model's relationships in an array format. In this article, we will explore the relationsToArray() method and its usage.

Usage

Let’s say we have a User model with a hasMany relationship to Post. We can use the relationsToArray() method to retrieve an array representation of the model's relationships.

$user = User::find(1);
$relationships = $user->relationsToArray();

// Example output:
// [
// 'posts' => [
// 'type' => 'hasMany',
// 'model' => 'App\Post',
// 'foreign_key' => 'user_id',
// ],
// ]

Explanation

The relationsToArray() method returns an array where each key represents a relationship defined in the model. The value for each key is another array that contains information about the relationship, including its type, the related model, and the foreign key used.

In the example above, the array returned by relationsToArray() shows that the User model has a hasMany relationship with the Post model. The type key indicates the type of relationship, the model key specifies the related model class, and the foreign_key key represents the foreign key used for the relationship.

To Remember

The relationsToArray() method in Laravel's Eloquent ORM provides a convenient way to retrieve the model's relationships in an array format. This can be useful when you need to access and manipulate the relationships programmatically. By understanding how to use this method, you can enhance your Laravel applications with more flexibility and control over the database relationships.

Remember to import the Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model class and define your relationships in the model before using the relationsToArray() method.

and voila! Happy coding!

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Originally published at https://moedayraki.github.io on September 12, 2023.

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Moe Dayraki

🙋‍♂️Do stuff on the web for the web! Currently working with #Laravel #Vuejs