Laravel 5 hasMany relationship on two columns

Question

Is it possible to have a hasMany relationship on two columns?

My table has two columns, user_id and related_user_id .

I want my relation to match either of the columns.

In my model I have

public function userRelations()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\UserRelation');
}

Which runs the query: select * from user_relations where user_relations.user_id in ('17', '18') .

The query I need to run is:

select * from user_relations where user_relations.user_id = 17 OR user_relations.related_user_id = 17 

EDIT:

I'm using eager loading and I think this will affect how it will have to work.

$cause = Cause::with('donations.user.userRelations')->where('active', '=', 1)->first();

Answer 1

I don't think it's possible to do exactly what you are asking.

I think you should treat them as separate relationships and then create a new method on the model to retrieve a collection of both.

public function userRelations() {
    return $this->hasMany('App\UserRelation');
}

public function relatedUserRelations() {
    return $this->hasMany('App\UserRelation', 'related_user_id');
}

public function allUserRelations() {
    return $this->userRelations->merge($this->relatedUserRelations);
}

This way you still get the benefit of eager loading and relationship caching on the model.

$cause = Cause::with('donations.user.userRelations', 
        'donations.user.relatedUserRelations')
    ->where('active', 1)->first();

$userRelations = $cause->donations[0]->user->allUserRelations();

Answer 2

Compoships adds support for multi-columns relationships in Laravel 5's Eloquent.

It allows you to specify relationships using the following syntax:

public function b()
{
    return $this->hasMany('B', ['key1', 'key2'], ['key1', 'key2']);
}

where both columns have to match.

Answer 3

I'd prefer doing it this way:

public function userRelations()
{
    return UserRelation::where(function($q) {
        /**
         * @var Builder $q
         */
        $q->where('user_id',$this->id)
            ->orWhere('related_user_id',$this->id);
    });
}

public function getUserRelationsAttribute()
{
    return $this->userRelations()->get();
}

Answer 4

If anyone landed here like me due to google: As neither merge() (as suggested above) nor push() (as suggested here ) allow eager loading (and other nice relation features), the discussion is still ongoing and was continued in a more recent thread, see here: Laravel Eloquent Inner Join on Self Referencing Table

I proposed a solution there , any further ideas and contributions welcome.