Laravel - 如何访问和操作 Pivot 表

Question

I have two tables, users and like_categories which has many-to-many relationship. The pivot table is called like_category_user. After inserting two users data into the db, here is my pivot table look like: https://i.imgur.com/MeeRbiV.png

Im a little bit confused on how can i access the pivot table since I didnt create a custom model for that pivot table. I want to count the amount for each of the different like category for each user and store it in object array like this:

[
    {
        "User Id": 1,
        "Like Categories": [
            {
                "Category": Chinese Restaurant
                "Amount": 1
            },
            {
                "Category": Korean Restaurant
                "Amount": 2
            },
            {
                "Category": Fast Food Restaurant
                "Amount": 3
            },
            {
                "Category": Italian Restaurant
                "Amount": 1
            },
            {
                "Category": Steakhouse Restaurant
                "Amount": 3
            }
        ]
    },
    {
        "User Id": 2,
        "Like Categories": [
            {
                "Category": Thai Restaurant
                "Amount": 1
            },
            {
                "Category": Kebab Shop
                "Amount": 3
            },
            {
                "Category": Pizza Place
                "Amount": 2
            },
            {
                "Category": Steakhouse
                "Amount": 1
            }
        }
    }
]

My process method:

public function showUserLikesData() {
    //
}

Answer 1

Try following this explanation , according to your code.

There is no real need to create a model for this table. Basically you will need to create a function in your models to have access to this table. In your view's or your api, you will need to mention this function along with Pivot, but the field. Something like:

$showUserLikesData->pivot->FieldName

Answer 2

In your relationship you can add ->withPivot('column_name') , which allows you to use more than foreign keys from the pivot table. So, an example:

public function things(){
    return $this->belongsToMany('App\ModelName')->withPivot('column_name')->withTimestamps();
}